Rebound: Part 2
by imaginator1
Summary: The New Ozai Society is planning to overthrow Fire Lord Zuko and reinstate Ozai, but he has no idea of the upcoming coup. Only one protagonist knows of this, but Mai broke up with Zuko two years prior. Will she finally have the courage to tell him of the upcoming danger or not? Regardless of how Zuko discovers this, will he be able to stop this society in time? (T)
1. Prologue

**The following story is what I imagine happening after the short cliffhanger comic _Rebound_ and the 3 trilogies. My facts for the story are:**

 **1\. All the characters will be the same age as they were at the end of the** **last official trilogy, _The Rift_ : Zuko is 19; Mai, Suki, and Sokka are 18; Azula, Ty Lee, and Katara are 17; Aang and Toph are 15; and Tom-Tom is 5.**

 **2\. Aunt Mura will be Mai's maternal aunt, the older sister of both the warden at the Boiling Rock and her mother, Michi.**

 **3\. In the United Republic of Nations, besides the capital Republic City, all of the states, cities, and towns are still called by their original colony names, such as Yu Dao.**

 **4\. There won't be any spirits involved, whether in the human world, like the koi fish, or in the Spirit World that Aang, as the Avatar, can go to.**

 **5\. There are 5 Imperial Firebenders of the Royal Procession guarding the palace wall, while the rest of them work in the palace.**

 **6\. The prologue starts the first evening after Mai escapes with Tom-Tom and takes him to her Aunt Mura at the flower shop, who is his temporary guardian.**

 **Feel free to give me a review of what you think of my story.**

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 **Prologue**

Mai knocked on the door, awaiting entry. It had taken all day to come to this decision, but after taking one last look at her baby brother before her aunt had closed her flower shop and had taken him upstairs to bed, she had made up her mind. She stood silently, listening for anyone inside the house. Mai finally heard soft footsteps coming closer, and she braced herself.

The front door creaked open, and her mother appeared. "Mai! It's so good to see you again. I've been worried sick about you and your brother Tom-Tom and how you've been getting by."

"It's good to see you, too."

Without giving her daughter time to say more, Michi continued, "Your father said that after Fire Lord Zuko broke up with you, you've been babysitting your little brother and other children to earn some pocket change. You know, you're always welcome to come back and live with us." Mai's mom looked around. "Where is Tom-Tom?"

"Why don't you ask Dad?"

"Mai, what's going on?" her mother asked, concerned.

"Is Dad home? We need to have a chat."

Mai's mom stepped aside and let her daughter enter, her anxiety growing as she glanced once more at the doorway for her son before closing it.

The two women walked through the house to the master bedroom, where Mai's father was reclining against his headboard, reading a book.

"Hello, Father," Mai stated in a menacing tone.

"Mai!" the man exclaimed in surprise, dropping the novel in shock. "H-how nice to see you! How have you and Tom-Tom been doing?"

"Don't play dumb, Dad. I think it's time you told Mom the truth about last night. The truth about _everything_."

"What are you talking about, Mai?" her mother asked. She turned to her husband for clarity. "Honey, what's going on?"

Mai's father refused to answer, unwilling to give up the secrets of the New Ozai Society. Although she kept her anger hidden with a perfect poker face, just like her parents had taught her to, it was burning a hole inside her. Staring at her dad, she remembered Zuko keeping his secret of meeting with his _own_ father. _I guess all men have secrets that can break your heart_ , Mai thought.

"Why don't you tell Mom where Tom-Tom is?" She waited a few minutes, but her father remained silent, so Mai continued, "I suppose I'll have to." She turned to face her mother. "Dad created an organization called the New Ozai Society. Its main objective is to overthrow Fire Lord Zuko and put Ozai back in power. He might even be plotting to have these Ozai loyalists kill him so Zuko can never reclaim the throne. He had one of his young, male loyalists take me out on a 'date' as a ploy to show me their underground base and encourage me to join, but I refused."

Mai paused, letting her mom process all of this knowledge. "And he's been lying to you on two other crucial issues. Zuko didn't break up with me— _I_ broke up with _him_. He was merely attempting to get you to dislike the Fire Lord enough to agree with his plan if you ever found out about this society.

"And you want to know where Tom-Tom is? When I wandered into their headquarters, I found my little brother there. I couldn't believe Dad had done that, placing a child in the midst of people who would eventually brainwash him into hating Zuko. Tom-Tom was surrounded by traitors who were armed and ready to fight to the death. I managed to safely rescue him. Now he lives with Aunt Mura and me, and I have a job at her flower shop."

Mai's mother looked horrified as she learned this. She stood petrified for a few minutes. "Ukano, is this true?"

He didn't bother responding and simply glared at his daughter.

"Why, Ukano? Why did you do this? And how in the world could you keep Tom-Tom from me? I am his _mother_. I can't trust you... And you're going to try to kill the Fire Lord? Why...?"

"Because, Michi, Zuko is the true traitor. He helped our nation lose the war. We need to replace him with Ozai as the real Fire Lord—Ozai would never have let that happen."

"I cannot believe you would do something like this...," Mai's mom said. "Even though we lost the war, he is still the Fire Lord, and this is not what I would expect from you." Her eyes began to water. "And you took Tom-Tom—our _son_ —to this dangerous underground base where there are many other traitors...? I can't trust my own husband... That's it—I'm leaving you and going to live with my sister and children."

"No, Michi—don't go!" Mai's father shouted.

Mai's mother quickly grabbed a few robes in her closet and began walking away from him. He did not try and stop her. Mai followed her, and both turned to look one more time at her dad. "Good-bye," her mother said. The two women then turned sharply and began their walk to the flower shop.

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© 2015 imaginator1


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Mai looked down at a picture on the counter in her aunt's flower shop, of her and Zuko hugging. The memories of confronting Azula at the Boiling Rock came back to her. _"I love Zuko more than I fear you."_ She had defeated the New Ozai Society, but she hadn't killed their warriors, and they were bound to have regained their strength by now and attempt to complete their plan of taking down the new Fire Lord. Mai needed to warn Zuko about the upcoming dangers of the society, but she hadn't spoken to him since _she_ had dumped _him_ two years ago.

Taking a deep breath, Mai promised herself she would pass on the knowledge. She had been courageous enough to save Zuko from prison _and_ tell her mother the truth about her father; she would be brave enough to go to the palace and inform the Fire Lord of the impending dangers. He needed to know, and as quickly as possible. _I'll relay the information to Ty Lee and the other Kyoshi Warriors tomorrow_ , she decided. Putting the portrait in a drawer behind the counter, she tried to concentrate on her younger brother and the customers, while really trying to figure out how she was going to say everything she needed to.

* * *

"Hey, Auntie Mura, I'm going to be gone for a few days. I have to go to the Royal Palace. When Mom comes to the store, go ahead and tell her where I'll be; I don't need her to worry any more than she already has."

Two years had passed since her mother had broken up with her father and moved into her own little apartment with Tom-Tom as far away from her ex-husband as possible. However, she was still in the capital, in the same neighborhood of her older sister's shop, where she now worked arranging flowers along with her daughter. Mai had decided to stay with their aunt, sharing her bedroom above the shop because her mother's new quarters were quite cramped.

"Sure, Mai," her aunt replied. "Why are you going? You seem to have been reminiscing about a certain someone for the past couple days, always staring at that picture you try and hide—he must be _some_ young man. Does he have something to do with your leaving? Does this young man live in the palace? I like seeing you smile and wouldn't want to see you unhappy."

Mai ignored her and went upstairs to grab a wide variety of her shuriken knives, attaching them to four holsters. She placed two holsters on each of her upper arms, hiding them as usual in her robe's huge sleeves. As she came back down, walking swiftly out of the shop and down the trail that led to the palace, she thought of the Fire Lord, and what it would mean to see him again.

Reaching the palace's perimeter wall, Mai was received by the Royal Procession of five supreme firebenders at the main gate. They checked her, ordering her to lift up her robe's hem to knee-height and pull back her sleeves to her elbows, not discovering the knives hidden higher up her sleeves. They determined she was clean and let her enter, opening the giant double doors.

Approaching the palace, Mai stopped and looked up at another pair of massive double doors. Did she have the courage to talk to her former boyfriend? She had been brave enough to save him from his sister at the Boiling Rock... But, he had asked his father for advice about leadership; although it was because Ozai had experience, he could have asked _her_ for help instead. She had told him that. She had told him that he was _supposed_ to ask his _girlfriend_ for help! And Ozai hadn't been a good Fire Lord, at least for the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes. Although Zuko had made things right and stopped listening to his father, she still had ended their relationship and wasn't sure if she should renew it. She didn't even know if she could forgive him yet for keeping secrets, despite her time away.

Mai knocked on the palace's front door and was welcomed by two of the Fire Lord's guards. She was checked for the second time, the guards searching for any weapons or threatening items, but once again they didn't find her knives and allowed her to pass. Once inside and out of sight, she removed one of the holsters on each arm and secured them to her ankles and then unfastened the other two and slipped them down, reconnecting them to her wrists.

She made her way down a few hallways until she came upon the entrance to Zuko's bedroom, where she found Suki and Ty Lee standing guard on either side, just outside the foyer that led to his master suite.

"Mai!" her best friend called cheerfully. "What are you doing here? It's great to see you again!"

"I have important news for you that Fire Lord Zuko needs to hear."

"I'll go wake him up," Suki said.

"No, it can wait until after he wakes up."

The two Kyoshi Warriors nodded, remembering how she had broken up with him, and waited to hear Mai's message.

"There's a group of Fire Nation citizens who are getting ready to try and reinstate his father and overthrow Fire Lord Zuko, maybe even kill him. They call themselves the 'New Ozai Society' and consider Zuko a traitor to the Fire Nation. He needs to be on guard, and you need to be the best warriors possible."

Both guards looked shocked and frightened for their leader. "How do you know this?" Suki asked.

"Because some guy named Kei Lo asked me out on a date, and I agreed. But he was part of the society and took me to meet them. My own father seems to be the leader of the group. I defeated them with my knife-throwing skills and such, but they'll be back. I even rescued my brother Tom-Tom from them and took him to my aunt's flower shop, where I currently live. The situation is dire. You'll need to stop them before they attack."

Unbeknownst to the three girls, the young Fire Lord was stirring as he heard a familiar monotone voice through the doorway. _Is that Mai?_ Zuko rubbed his eyes, not believing that she could be here. _Is she ready to forgive me? Are we going to get back together?_

Mai was about to turn around and exit the palace when Zuko was seen in the dark foyer, looking at her. "Mai!" Zuko cried out.

Her eyes fixed themselves on Zuko's face. She quickly turned and started striding out of the palace.

"Wait! Mai! Come back!" Zuko ran after her, still in his short-sleeved night robe and cropped culottes but not caring that he was not dressed appropriately. He sprinted towards her, finally managing to grab her arm and swing her around to face him, the Kyoshi Warriors close behind.

Mai stared at him, not knowing what to say. She knew she was going to have to face him sooner or later. "What do you want?" she finally asked as he released his grip.

"I...I want to know why you're here—I want you to stay here, with me—I want you to forgive me!" he said, his voice growing louder with each word.

"You're not going to like why I'm here," Mai muttered.

"Why not?!" Zuko shouted, fire blasting out of his mouth.

"There's a crazy gang of Fire Nation civilians who want to take you down and put your father back in power," Ty Lee responded warily. "They might even kill you."

Zuko's eyes widened. "No matter what I do—I _always_ have someone who hates me! I've already had six assassination attempts on my life! Not only do some of my own subjects resent me, but you're no different, Mai. You're furious with me because I went to my father for advice! I want you to know that I _only_ did so because he had experience as Fire Lord. I thought this would, at the very least, help me be a good leader—a better, more peaceful one! But you got so angry with me, Mai, just for keeping this one secret from you! So I stopped visiting my dad, and now a bunch of people want to overthrow me! I just can't win!"

The two Kyoshi Warriors tried to calm him down, but it was of no use. It took a while before his rage waned and he could speak again.

"Suki, you're in a relationship with Sokka. Bring him, his sister Katara, Toph, and the Avatar to me! I could send a messenger hawk to the Southern Water Tribe, but that would take much more time for the hawk to get there than if you traveled in a hot air balloon. I will need all of them and you three to stop this society from killing me!" Zuko froze as a worse thought came to him. _My mother, stepfather, and half-sister—they're going to be in danger, too! I can't let that happen after finally finding my mom!_ "Ty Lee, get two other Kyoshi Warriors. They'll be in charge of making sure my mother and her family are safe. Absolutely _nothing_ can be allowed to happen to them after all this time!"

Both Suki and Ty Lee nodded before the Kyoshi Warriors' leader began leaving the palace, and the former circus girl flipped and twirled off to find her friends. "Oh, Zuko, do you want me to bring your uncle back as well?" Suki asked before she left the corridor.

Zuko turned his head slightly to the side, looking down. "Um... No." He raised his head, directing his gaze at her. "It would be good to have him here, especially with all the wisdom he can provide, but I think he deserves some peace and quiet in his Jasmine Dragon tea shop. He already had to take over for me when I was searching for my mother."

Suki continued her journey to the front door, in search of one of his government workers. Ty Lee quickly came back, along with another Kyoshi Warrior to take Suki's place on her side of the entrance to his bedroom. Zuko dragged himself back to his room and settled himself on his bed, slumped with his head in his hands. _Even as the Fire Lord_ , he thought, _I'm still 'lucky to be born', as my father would say. Or now, just lucky to be_ alive _!_

Even though he was in imminent danger, his thoughts still ran back to Mai. _Will she ever forgive me? She_ did _come to the palace to tell me of this new peril, but will she ever actually..._ love _me again?_ He had just been trying to get a better idea of how to be the Fire Lord from his father, and he _had_ changed things for the better after...after almost restarting the war. _I'm not listening to my power-hungry dad anymore, and my secret was revealed, so why can't she accept me? I have nothing to hide._

Laying back on his bed, he sighed. _I had wanted my throne back for so long when I was still hunting the Avatar, but I had never thought of the challenges it would bring. How will I ever deal with the life of a king?!_

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© 2015 imaginator1


	3. Chapter 2

****Chapter 2****

Suki reported her orders from Zuko to one of his generals and was eventually escorted outside. She received a Fire Nation hot air balloon, like the modern ones used in the Earth Kingdom that do not require a firebender to operate, since she wasn't one. Boarding the huge blimp, she started her flight towards the Southern Water Tribe, her first suspicion of where Sokka and Katara might be. And wherever Katara was, Aang would most likely also be since they were sweeties.

The trip took a shorter amount of time than Suki expected, even though the journey had taken her almost halfway across the world. It was much like traveling on a flying bison with no one in the sky or the sea below to delay her, unlike all the times when Zuko had been chasing Aang and his friends and postponing their arrival to the Northern Water Tribe; therefore her flight was much swifter than anticipated.

Upon reaching her destination, she kept the balloon anchored in the sky just outside the tribe's outer circular snow wall, climbed down the rope ladder, and walked through the main entrance, taking it all in. It was thriving now more than it had been when Sokka and Katara had first left with Aang, thanks to the Northern Water Tribe allies who had come to help rebuild their sister tribe a few years ago. There were many more citizens and tents, and quite a few more igloos, made of strongly packed snow.

Where was Sokka? She saw Appa lying near one of the igloos, Aang on top of his bison, and children running around. The kids were petting Appa and trying to catch Momo as the winged lemur soared low through the skies. Katara was using her waterbending with two other, seasoned masters, helping to create another igloo. Neither of them had noticed her yet. Suki had spotted many warriors, but they were all older than her love. Wait—was that him? A tall man, his back to her, stood a few feet away; he had a wolf's tail but also a full head of hair. Had he changed that much in two years? Sokka __was__ eighteen now and most likely an official warrior.

"Sokka!" she called, running over to him.

The warrior turned to face her as she reached him, but it wasn't Sokka. It was his father, Hakoda.

"Hello, Suki. If you're looking for Sokka, he's inside Kanna's tent," he said, pointing.

"Kanna?"

"My mother." He stared at her intently. "What's wrong?"

"There's trouble in the Fire Nation again. Some secret organization is trying to take down Fire Lord Zuko, since they think he's a traitor for helping to end the war. He wants the gang to come back and help him."

"Well, I don't think you'll have any trouble getting Sokka to come with you," Hakoda grinned, knowing how much Sokka cared for Suki after their little rescue mission at the Boiling Rock. "But it might take a while to get to Toph, since she's running her own metalbending school near Yu Dao. Good luck."

Suki thanked him and walked into the hut Hakoda had pointed to. She found Kanna sound asleep on a mat covered by a large, fluffy blanket. Sokka was lying on his side, looking bored with one hand propped under his chin, watching his grandmother sleep and contemplating a nap of his own.

 _ _Well, this is going to be fun for me__ , she thought, stifling her chuckles. Tip-toeing until she was right behind him, she shouted, "Boo!" as she placed her hands on his shoulders.

"Aaah!" he screamed. Sokka swiftly turned around, his boomerang already in his hand, and stared at her, disbelief in his eyes.

"Suki!" he cried. "You should be more careful—I almost attacked you!"

"Oh, I couldn't resist," she laughed. "And didn't __I__ attack __you__ at the Boiling Rock? You should've been more careful there—looks like you've learned your lesson about being wary of strangers."

Sokka grumbled, still annoyed that he had been completely spooked by her. "So, why are you here?"

"Well, it's like old times. We need to get the gang back together and take care of a few problems in the Fire Nation."

"Did Azula return? Did Ozai escape from prison? Is Zuko causing trouble?"

"No, to all three of your questions. It's worse. Some Fire Nation citizens are trying to overthrow Zuko and restart the war."

"Oh, great! We worked so hard to end it, then the trouble with the Harmony Restoration Movement almost causes the war to begin again, and now this."

"Relax, Sokka," Suki said. "I would have thought you would like this, since __now__..."

"Oh, yeah, like I'm gonna be happy about taking care of another issue! Why? Because I get an excuse to spend some more time with you?" Sokka's eyes widened as he realized what he had just said—and the fact that being in each other's company __would__ counteract the reason why they were brought back together in the first place, along with actually having something to do other than watching over his grandmother. "Oh, well, yeah," he said in a normal tone, as if this was an everyday conversation. "Of course I'm glad about that part."

Suki giggled, knowing Sokka __was__ happy to see her. "Well, it's time to get your sister and Aang. So let's go."

Suki and Sokka ran out of the tent over to the right side of the snow wall, but not before stealing a few kisses. "Hey, Aang!" the Kyoshi Warrior called, waving.

"Suki!" the Avatar exclaimed, jumping off of Appa and drifting to the ground.

Katara turned her head to glance at her boyfriend, wondering why he sounded so excited. She saw her brother, but that couldn't be why Aang was so delighted. Looking farther on, she eventually caught sight of a teenage girl wearing a green, armored kimono and white face paint. Katara stopped bending, leaving the other two waterbenders to finish the igloo after a few words to them, and rushed over to the Kyoshi Warrior.

"Suki! It's good to see you again!" the young waterbending master said.

"Hi, Katara!" Suki exclaimed.

"What are you doing here?" the Avatar asked. "I thought you were guarding Zuko since he's the Fire Lord."

"That's the whole reason I'm here. He needs our help, since there's been a coup forming. But I'll explain more later; we also need to get Toph."

"But how are we gonna stop her from teaching metalbending? Will she leave her school and come along with us, even for a few days?" Sokka asked, groaning. "That girl is as stubborn as the metal she bends!"

"Well, let's not keep Zuko waiting," Aang said. He and Katara mounted Appa with Momo resting on Aang's shoulder. Sokka was about to join them when he noticed Suki was leaving.

"Suki, what are you doing?" Sokka asked, confused.

"Well, I flew here in a hot air balloon. It's not like I have a sky bison of my own," she replied, smiling widely at his absent-mindedness.

Sokka followed her out of the entryway and climbed up into the blimp, feeling like a fool as he recalled the last time she had come for him and Toph at the metalbending school in a blimp as well. "All right, let's go!" he shouted. Suki increased the hot air, and the balloon rose higher up into the sky with ease. Then she switched on the other controls and the propellers sprang to life, sending them on their way. Appa followed suit with a "yip-yip" from Aang as he saw them lift off, and they all flew off to the Beifong Metalbending Academy.

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© 2015 imaginator1


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

After a few minutes of pitying himself on his bed, Fire Lord Zuko arose and put on his day robe, ready for any pressing business. The difficulties he had to deal with as a king, especially the threat of this new coup that wanted to destroy him, were merciless. Many of the decisions and choices he had to make during council meetings were burdensome, since they would decide the fate of the Fire Nation and also how everyone thought of his country and of him as a leader.

Stepping out of his room, he almost suffered a heart attack. Mai was still there, hidden in a dark corner of his bedroom's foyer! "Mai!" he shouted happily.

"Yeah?" she answered in her usual monotone voice.

"So, um... Does this mean you forgive me? Are you giving me a second chance?" he queried hopefully.

She didn't bother responding.

"I guess not," Zuko said despondently to himself.

"Depends, you idiot. I have to decide if I can. Just because you stopped listening to your father doesn't mean you won't become like him. And keeping a secret like that from your girlfriend shows you can't trust me."

"That's not true! I'm not _evil_! I'm _not_ like my father, and I never will be! I _do_ trust you! And I'm sure you've kept secrets from _me_! _Everyone_ has secrets!"

"But mine aren't bad secrets. I had a date with another boy, Kei Lo. And you should be glad I did."

"When was this?" Zuko asked, feeling dejected. "And why should I be _happy_?!"

"First of all, you had a date with that girl, Jin, in Ba Sing Se, right? So why can't _I_ have one? Anyway, that's how I learned about the New Ozai Society in the first place. The guy I went out with was one of them, and he took me to the society after our supposed 'date'. If you're sad that I tried to have another chance at finding love, then at least be grateful I uncovered a possible threat on your life."

Zuko looked away, not sure what to say. "Thanks...," he grumbled.

The two of them silently gazed at each other. Needing a change of pace, the young king asked softly, "Would you like to take a walk through the garden with me?"

Mai continued staring at him, then began walking down the path out of the palace to the rose garden, which was interspersed with fire lilies throughout and a large, enchanting pond in the center. Zuko slowly followed her, stunned that she had accepted his offer to come along. The Kyoshi Warriors trailed after him, granting the former lovebirds enough room for a bit of privacy. Sitting down on one of the wooden benches with her, he looked over at Mai.

"Please listen, Mai. The very first time I went to visit my father was right after the war ended and I was newly crowned. I wanted information on my mother's whereabouts. The trip was fruitless, though, because he wouldn't relinquish anything to me, and after dealing with the issue in Yu Dao, I tried again and again to get him to reveal her location and physical state, but it was futile, so I stopped. I was—the reason—I only went to see my father for information about my mother and because I was having trouble with my people. It isn't easy being the ruler of a nation, especially when some of my own subjects think I'm a traitor for helping to end the war by working with the Avatar, thus giving the other nations a victory. The Earth King and I decided to remove the Fire Nation colonies from his kingdom, and it was easy enough to eliminate the newer colonies, since most of our citizens _wanted_ to come back. But it was much more taxing with the older colonies in the Earth Kingdom, since some had been established well before the war had ever started, like Yu Dao, the very first colony. Also, taking all the Fire Nation civilians that were from the ancient colonies back to our country would have had a tremendous effect on them.

"When I traveled to Yu Dao, I met a family of one of our Fire Nation people whose wife and daughter were earthbenders. I noticed marriage between the two races was very common, the people having bonded over the century. This was problematic because if I had ordered all our citizens from the older colonies to return, then families would have been split apart. Families, whose children weren't benders, would have had to choose which parent to live with. And even the families of pure Fire Nation residents would still have lost the only homes they had ever known. So I called off my support of the Harmony Restoration Movement and ordered colonials from the other ancient colonies to return.

"Of course, that caused quite a bit of trouble, since Earth King Kuei was extremely angry about this, which, in turn, started a huge battle within the city between our armies. Even though I wasn't trying to reclaim supremacy over the colonies, it appeared as if I was acting like my father when I sent my army to Yu Dao for that battle. In reality, I was just trying to have the colonials remain in their homes. But after Aang ended the strife and talked to the Earth King, Kuei realized that the world wasn't the same after the Hundred Year War, with the people in all the remaining colonies no longer divided into two different races of either the Earth Kingdom or the Fire Nation. They had bonded with each other, like Aang and Katara or Sokka and Suki, creating one people, one community. Thankfully, this cohesion put an end to the Movement.

"I realized then that I had been correct in defending people and their bonds with each other in Yu Dao, and that I had to make decisions _myself_ , without my father's assistance or the Avatar's help. I learned that I must set a steady course to ensure our nation's stability, knowing that my choices could cause the fate of our country to prosper or perish.

"Later, when Yu Dao elected two Earth Kingdom and two Fire Nation citizens as representatives to form a new, coalition government, the other colonies followed suit after Yu Dao's individual government was successful. Then Aang and I created the United Republic of Nations together out of all those former colonies, and a fifth nation was made, where citizens from all the original four have come together to live."

He remained silent for quite a while and gazed down at the flowers. "It's beautiful, isn't it? It's even better with the fire lilies. I wish they would blossom for more than a few weeks each year. Just like something else I wish would stay longer," he added softly.

Mai kept her gaze on the flowers, knowing what—or rather, who—he was talking about. She turned to him, warmth showing in her eyes. "Yes, the garden is magnificent, _and_ I am staying. My father and his society _aren't_ going to overthrow my former boyfriend."

Zuko almost gasped, unsure of how to feel. Mai was going to stay at the palace in order to protect him! But she had called him her _former_ boyfriend. Unwilling to let her see his heartache, he forced his shoulders not to droop. "Thank you," he replied.

They sat on the bench for a few more minutes before Mai got up and began her walk back to the palace. The Fire Lord remained there, glancing at his retreating love. Finally rising, he and his bodyguards followed her, and he prepared himself for the day's business.

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© 2015 imaginator1


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Are we _there_ yet?" Sokka grumbled. "Can't this balloon and Appa fly any faster?"

"Sokka!" his sister scolded as Appa growled angrily. "We're heading to the United Republic! Toph's school is near Yu Dao, and that's pretty far from the Southern Water Tribe!"

The blimp and bison were soaring rapidly through the sky, coming closer and closer to the new, fifth nation. Finally floating over the city of Yu Dao, they glanced around, looking for any sign of a school outside the walls. "Hey, I think I see it!" Aang cried, pointing to the west.

An enormous white stone building with a green roof and gold, scrolling artwork sat upon the bluff of a mountain. A long, winding stairway that led there from the mountain's base could be seen distinctly from their vantage point. The school appeared much larger than before, as if it had grown into the size of the mountain itself.

"Whoa," Sokka said softly.

"It _is_ amazing, but you know Toph. She doesn't do anything in halves," Katara said, as they both landed in front of the awning at the beginning of the staircase. "Come on, let's go up. We need to get her and fly to the Fire Nation Royal Palace as fast as possible."

"I was here before, and it was so much smaller...," Sokka said, still in awe. "I even heard Toph mention once that she had so many metalbending students, there wasn't enough room inside for everyone, and she had to make 'earth tents' outside for them as dormitories. She wasn't charging her students then. Boy, how times have changed. I wonder how Toph got the funding to enlarge her school?"

"Well, let's find out," said Aang, sprinting excitedly up the stairs to the newly enlarged building, everyone following behind.

He knocked soundly on the door, and suddenly he heard Toph shouting orders. "All right, keep it up, class! It looks like I'm going to be gone for a few days, so Penga, Ho Tun, and The Dark One, keep teaching these lily livers metalbending and make sure they progress. Remember, you're all taking a field trip to the Earthen Fire Refinery tomorrow to work on the machines. And if _any_ of you slack off, I'll know it and you'll be sorry when I come back," she ended threateningly.

The enormous double doors suddenly burst open, and Toph came out to greet them. "Hey, Twinkle Toes. What's up?"

"How did you know it was me?" the airbender asked.

"How many times do I have to tell you? I'd know your little footsteps anywhere!"

Sokka peered behind Toph down the hallway toward the gym and saw a large, green tapestry with a huge, white Beifong symbol of the flying boar hanging from one of its walls. "No way...," he gasped. Inside the building, from what he could see behind her, were about fifty students in an incredibly expansive gym. From his viewpoint, the school seemed to stretch out endlessly to either side of the mountain's walls.

"Yeah, I was able to increase the size of my school," she stated, both hearing and feeling Sokka move from side to side, knowing he was admiring the school behind her as he tried to get a better look. Closing the doors, she continued, "Satoru and I made a deal, with him sponsoring me for the building extensions with the money that his uncle and my father make at the refinery. His financial donation was crucial, since you know I don't charge any of my lily livers, on the one condition that they visit the refinery for him and practice their metalbending on the broken machinery there. So what's going on? I couldn't help but overhear you as you were coming up. Why do you need me to go to the palace in the Fire Nation?"

"Some undercover organization has been created by Ozai loyalists, and they're trying to take down Zuko and reinstate Ozai," Suki explained. "We need to find and stop them before they strike. We're also going to be guarding Zuko while we search for this society."

Toph seemed to freeze in place, as if Katara had used waterbending on her. Memories of talking to Satoru when trapped in the mine came flashing back to her. He had run away from home since his parents were extremely political and joined a... _What was it that he had said?_ Toph thought. _A—an underground pro-Ozai society!_

"Toph! Are you in there? What are you doing?" Sokka shouted at her, snapping his fingers in front of her blind eyes.

"This little organization...," she said slowly, coming back to the present. "Are they called the Ozai Society?"

"The _New_ Ozai Society, but...how did you know that?!" Suki exclaimed.

"Satoru spoke to me about his parents joining a pro-Ozai society, and that was why he was living with his uncle and working at a refinery."

"Satoru?" Suki asked.

"Some guy we met in the refinery with employees working together from all the nations. He was a runaway, like Toph," Katara explained.

"Okay, well, we can catch up on all this later," Suki said. "Come on, we've gotta get back to the palace. Toph, do you want to ride on Appa or a hot air balloon?"

"I hate flying, so I'll just stick with the bison I've come to love."

"That's fine by me," Sokka said smugly, giving Suki a romantic smile.

Team Avatar boarded the aerial balloon and bison and began their journey to the Fire Nation Royal Palace, Momo tagging behind in the clouds.

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© 2015 imaginator1


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Zuko sat on the throne, the wall of fire in front of him blazing brightly, producing the room's only light. Although the throne room was where most of his decisions and plans with his military and civilian advisors took place, he had told his officials to assemble elsewhere on this day, since he was awaiting to have a private meeting with the Avatar and his former gang. He had also ordered both the Imperial Firebenders and the two guards at the front gate to permit the Avatar and his friends entrance without a weapon's check. He knew that they would not come to this party empty-handed.

 _They should be arriving soon_ , he thought.

Looking through the empty room, his shoulders sagged with loneliness. Mai was probably in her bedroom, avoiding him. His Kyoshi Warriors, Ty Lee and the one taking Suki's place until her return, were hiding unseen behind the pillars in the darkness, ready for any assassination attempts.

 _When they come, I won't be alone. And I do have my mother back, so I'm not_ really _on my own._

Suddenly, he heard a jumble of footsteps advancing toward him. Raising his shoulders in anticipation of an onslaught, he waited and saw through the dim light a group of five teenagers and one small animal, their silhouettes familiar.

"Hey, Zuko!" cried an enthusiastic voice.

The young Fire Lord stood up and lowered the fire wall, rendering the flames to ash and smoke before stepping down. "Hello, Aang. I'm guessing Appa's outside, since he doesn't like being in tunnels," he replied, the fire blasting up again on the large dais behind him as he walked over to them. "It's good to see you all again."

As he approached, Zuko saw that the palace entry guards had obeyed his order and allowed all of them, and not just Suki, to keep their weapons. Aang, of course, was holding his staff, and Sokka had his boomerang strapped onto his back with his bone club in hand. Toph didn't have any items with her, although she wouldn't need any. Katara appeared as if she had the most weaponry of them all because she was laden with five large water skins across her back and hips.

"Well, _you_ can say that," Toph laughed sarcastically. "I could never see any of you!"

Zuko chuckled, remembering the metalbender's strong, tomboy personality.

"Yeah, Appa's taking a nap on one of the flat rooftops of your palace because these hallways are a bit claustrophobic for him and his enormous size," said Aang.

"I'm glad that you're here. But do you know why I've asked you to come?"

"Yeah," Sokka answered. "Suki explained everything. A potential coup by Ozai loyalists may take place; they desire to overthrow you and have your dad take the throne again."

"There's more to it than that," a monotone voice said.

Everyone swiftly turned their head to the left and saw a girl coming towards them. "Mai!" Zuko shouted. "I didn't even know you were here!"

"I can hide in this dark room just as well as any of your guards."

"I have some more intel you may want to hear as well," Toph stated, moving the conversation along.

"Well, let's get started," the firebender said. "Mai's father is the leader of the New Ozai Society, and when some guy named Kei Lo took her to meet them, pretending it was part of their date—"

"What?!" Sokka yelled at him. "I thought she was _your_ girlfriend!"

"She kind of...broke up with me...during the trouble I was causing for the Harmony Restoration Movement."

"Why?" he pressed.

"Because... Because I was..." Zuko sighed, knowing they weren't going to like the truth. "Because I had been secretly visiting my father in his prison cell, asking for advice on how to be Fire Lord." Seeing everyone but Mai and Suki express fright and shock, he continued, "I eventually stopped showing up—I went because I wasn't sure how to rule, and since he had been the king before me, I thought maybe I should seek his council. I know his weakness for power, but I just needed help on how to rule a nation! Anyway, Mai was angry I had kept it a secret from her and ran off to her aunt's flower shop. She had even told me to ask _her_ for advice if I was ever in trouble, but obviously I didn't. And so now, here we are."

He watched their faces slowly relax and started up again, "So Kei Lo brought her to the new society, and her dad wanted her to be a part of it, but she refused. She found her little brother there, which crushed her. She fought them off with knives and other tactics when they began attacking her for not joining, but she refrained from ending their lives. When she had the advantage, she ran back to her aunt's with Tom-Tom in tow."

"I know a couple of others who are a part of this organization," Toph said to the solemn group. "Satoru's parents."

"Who is—" Zuko began.

"Not important," Toph interrupted. "So we know there's at least four people in this society. How many did you fight, Mai?"

"Half a dozen or so. But the fact that my dad is the leader isn't the information I had for you. Since I was brought there, I can show you their underground base, which will help us take them down."

 _*Bam!*_

The throne room's door blasted open, hitting the adjacent wall with immense force. "What's going on?" the Fire Lord demanded.

"Your demise is what's going on," a cold voice answered back.

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© 2015 imaginator1


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Suki and the other two Kyoshi Warriors crept around the black pillars to get a good look at their opponents. The three girls then silently dashed left and right to different pillars and continued to observe their enemies from behind. They were too fast for the trespassers to firebend or aim any weapons at them, even if the Ozai loyalists could actually see the women warriors in the darkly lit entryway. Undetected, Ty Lee began to leap from pillar to pillar, higher and higher as she went, in order to gain a better view of their foes. "I see fifteen!" she whispered to her companions as she jumped down and signaled for them to move in closer.

"There's at least fifteen, according to your guards," Toph murmured to Zuko.

"Well, they're not overthrowing the new Fire Lord. I'll make sure of it!" Mai shouted, her voice growing louder with each word, inadvertently catching the attention of the Ozai loyalists.

She sprinted forward with her friends to confront the enemy. As the antagonists gained proximity to the Fire Lord, the three Kyoshi Warriors opened their metal fans and began applying their more subtle tactics, which involved using their enemies' force against them.

Mai took hold of the knives inside her sleeves and began throwing them with precision at the infiltrators, forcefully pinning them to the wall by their clothes. Sokka went wild, smacking anyone who came near with his club and hurling his boomerang at those outside his direct line of fire.

As people attacked the girls, Katara and Toph fought off their respective predators one by one, rendering them unconscious. When they were certain their rivals were incapable of retaliation, they adhered them firmly to the floor. Katara used her water, bending it into ice, while Toph controlled random metal floor tiles, each creating cages. With their heads being the only part exposed, Katara's adversaries looked like human ice sculptures and Toph's appeared as carved, metal statues.

In another area of the room, Aang blasted others high up against the wall with fierce gusts of air from both his hands and his staff. The force of their bodies being slammed against the building incapacitated most of them. By the time they fell to the floor, gravity had taken its toll and none were capable of striking back.

In his corner, Zuko was fending off a few firebenders. He had to be swift, fighting fire with fire, and he had to dodge their raging blasts as well. Even though neutralizing their flames consumed much of his focus, he managed to emit his own retaliatory shots.

The battle seemed to go on forever, adrenaline pumping through everyone's veins. Katara and Toph continued to encase any unconscious foes lying on the floor with more ice and metal cages, regardless of who had rendered them inactive. Finally, when the last assailant fell, Katara froze him where he lay and then proceeded to let out a huge sigh of triumph mixed with exhaustion.

"All right, let's see who these guys are," Zuko said, as he crouched down to inspect the captives on the ground. He received a major shock, almost falling backwards unceremoniously onto his backside but catching himself with his hands before righting himself and leaning back over his subjects for a second look. "General Junichi! Commander Minoru! And that's Tamotsu—one of the palace guards who defends the very entrance!"

Zuko moved over to other defeated adversaries lying on the floor, where two of the firebenders he had fought were dressed in official garb, viewable through their ice cages as if they were made of elegant glass. Observing them more closely in the dim light, he nearly fainted from surprise when he was able to distinguish their outfits. "Those two are from the Royal Procession!" His heart saddened from the betrayal.

"Of course we needed some spies," spat one of the few conscious opponents who was merely pinned to the wall by Mai's knives. "How else do you think we were able to get inside?"

The Fire Lord rose, his anger burning inside him. He strode arrogantly over to the young man and grasped his shirt tightly in his fist. "How many more spies are there in the palace? How many people are in the New Ozai Society? _Tell me_ _! I command you!_ "

"You're not getting _anything_ out of me. You are not _my_ lord. I refuse to answer you and prefer to die with my tongue silent."

Zuko's hand started to fire up, incinerating a hole in the man's shirt. "You're actually quite lucky I'm not my father, no matter how much you want him back as the Fire Lord, for you wouldn't _have_ a tongue by now if those irreverent words had left your mouth in his presence," he threatened.

"I have nothing to say to you," the man spat out.

"If you persist in remaining silent, then you're _never_ to be freed from the Capital City Prison!" Zuko released the man with one firm shove against the wall and stomped off to the perimeter.

His three Kyoshi Warriors closely followed behind after they quickly chi-blocked those traitors that were still conscious. The chi-blocks caused them to sag in their pinned garments, their limbs no longer useful. As Mai pulled her knives out from the wall, they fell to the ground in a stagnant and immobile state.

"All right, let's get these guys out of here and headed for prison cells," Sokka said.

Toph began extracting more floor tiles, using them to enclose the remaining foes in cages. Eventually all the invaders were trapped within metal or ice contraptions.

"I can lead you to the Prison Tower," Mai stated.

The three benders each levitated a few of the prisoners by bending the elements, and Sokka and Mai each grabbed one and began to maneuver them out of the throne room. Walking out and down a hallway to the palace's front door, they started traveling northwest through Capital City.

"How much longer do we have to go?" Sokka groaned after a while, tired of the weight of his metal-encased prisoner.

"A few kilometers more," Mai responded matter-of-factly.

"Do you ever converse just to shoot the breeze?" the Water Tribe warrior asked. "Why don't you ever talk more than just responding to questions when asked? Why are you so...unattached and unemotional?"

"My parents raised me this way so that I wouldn't dishonor them; it was their belief system of how to become higher in status during Ozai's reign. Their philosophy was 'Don't speak unless spoken to and no harm will come to you.'"

Mai was glad that no one was able to see her face as she led them to the prison. Unlike times of battle, she didn't typically wear an expression, unless talking to her former love, Zuko. However, right now she was actually emanating gloom. She was saddened both that the society had infiltrated the palace and that her ex-boyfriend had lost trust in his government, and she wasn't comforted by the fact they were going to the same prison where Zuko's father was held captive. Not only had Zuko held secret meetings with him, but there was absolutely no way to know if any of the guards there were spies who were planning to bust him out.

Arriving at the Prison Tower's front door, they entered but were hindered by guards. After telling the guards they had prisoners to deliver, the guards inspected the people they had brought. "Why are _they_ prisoners?" one of them demanded to know, recognizing the faces of the captured.

"Because they attacked the Fire Lord and tried to overthrow him!" Mai shouted.

The gang looked over at her, amazed at her emotional outburst. She was excellent at keeping even her greatest feelings buried with a poker face, never speaking or acting out like _this_ , unless battling. They realized that she must be reeling with rage.

"They tried to _kill_ my _boyfriend_!" she screamed angrily.

If only Zuko was with them right now—he would have been overjoyed to hear those words.

The guards instinctively took a step back. They motioned for the group to follow them through the tower, to find empty cells for the traitors. In each individual cell, they placed one of their former opponents inside and stripped them of their metal or ice before locking the prison door behind them. After all fifteen had been incarcerated into the Capital City Prison, the group headed back to the palace to determine their next move.

* * *

 **The three Japanese names I chose for his guard and government workers have to do with the irony of this revelation.** ** _Junichi_** **means "obedient one";** ** _Minoru_** **means "truth"; and** ** _Tamotsu_** **means "protector".**

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© 2015 imaginator1


	8. Chapter 7

**In** ** _The Search_** **, Ursa, who had changed her identity after her banishment at the age of 38, had her face and memories restored by the Mother of Faces to her original appearance. In my story, Ikem has had his face changed back as** **well.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

Fire Lord Zuko strode through the hallways of the palace and flung open the entrance doors, his Kyoshi Warriors right behind him. They found the guard outside, unconscious, because he had been beaten by his traitorous companion, Tamotsu. As he neared the perimeter wall and pulled open the double doors, he discovered the other three Imperial Firebenders had succumbed to the same treatment from their own colleagues and were lying on the ground in awkward positions.

Zuko took in the scene and screamed to the sky, letting out his anger.

"Each of you take one of them and bring them back to the palace. We'll place them in the infirmary," he ordered after calming down enough to speak. "I'll take the guard."

The three Kyoshi Warriors each hoisted up and carried off one of the firebenders and then followed Zuko.

* * *

As Zuko and his guardswomen made their way back to the palace, the rest of the gang returned to the throne room, discussing the previous battle and all the possibilities of its aftermath. Mai, of course, was standing apart from the others, near the throne platform. "So now we know that the palace isn't truly safe because we found five spies already. How many more do you think are a part of the rebellion?" Sokka asked.

"That's difficult to answer," Toph replied, bending the metal tiles back onto the floor as she spoke. "But there is a way—although it would take a _long_ time."

"What?" he demanded excitedly.

"Remember how I can discern if people are telling the truth or not?" she asked rhetorically. "Well, if we were to go through the entire palace's employee roster and complete an interrogation, we would be able to determine if anyone who works here is a part of the society. But, like I implied, the list is going to be _lengthy_."

"I could help with that," Mai said. As the gang turned in surprise to look at her, she continued, "Before I broke up with Zuko, I lived here. I know my way around like the back of my hand and would make an excellent tour guide."

"Let's go!" Aang said. "We've got no time to lose."

* * *

The gang trailed behind Mai, with Momo soaring above them. Even though Aang was used to decadent palaces, he was still in awe of this one, realizing the Fire Nation Royal Palace was one of the largest, most complex buildings he had ever seen, with so many doors and hallways. A person could easily get lost without help, and it made the task much more efficient with Mai leading the way, as she even knew where to obtain both the day and night shift lists. These, Sokka promptly grabbed from the clipboards hanging on the wall in the main employee vestibule, promising to put them back when the gang was done with them.

With the lists in hand, they devised a plan. Toph would use her feet to detect if anyone was inside a room so they wouldn't have to waste crucial time searching through all of them. However, if her feet sensed someone was indeed inside a locked room and knocking did not gain them entry, she would use her metalbending to force the door open.

As they went from room to room, they quickly learned that the people from the day list were, of course, merely asleep and not hiding from them. Being in a deep sleep, they would startle awake with each dramatic entrance by Toph and the team. After their sleepy stupor wore off, the inquisition to expose those who were lying about not being a part of the New Ozai Society would begin. Their first evening rendered no conspirators, but they were determined to finish weeding out any Ozai loyalists from the palace.

As dusk turned to dawn, almost all of the employees and residents on both rosters had been investigated, including the Kyoshi Warriors themselves. The last few remaining were Zuko's new family and his most essential council members. The sun began to rise as they came across a room with two Kyoshi Warriors stationed at the door. "We need to enter," Mai said.

"Zuko told us we must keep his mother and her family under full protection," one of them replied.

"This isn't a joke!" Toph shouted, moving in front of Mai. "A group, which included palace workers, just attempted to annihilate Zuko! No one is exempt. We're checking everyone!"

The female guards, who had been brought personally by Mai to protect the Fire Lord two years ago, slowly made way for them, anxiety showing on their faces as knowledge of the assault hit them. Entering the room, the team spotted three people lying on two large, sumptuous beds—Zuko's mother, Ursa, and his stepfather, Ikem, on one, and his half-sister, Kiyi, on the other.

"I seriously doubt they would have anything to do with the society, especially that little girl," Sokka said. "She's way too young to be a part of anything like that, and Zuko worked so hard with us to find his mother."

"You never know," Toph said. "And didn't Mai say that she rescued her little brother from the society after finding him there? If she hadn't taken him with her, he would have grown up learning to hate Zuko as the Fire Lord. Zuko just discovered his own government working against him! We _must_ check them." She shook them awake and waited until she could feel through their vibrations that they had risen into a sitting position.

"Sorry for waking you up," Aang said sincerely, rubbing a hand behind his neck in total embarrassment and smiling nervously, even though the sun was just making its appearance on the horizon. "We just need to ask you a really important question."

Ikem nodded, patiently awaiting their inquiry, while Ursa kept a motherly eye on Kiyi, who was sleepily playing with Momo.

"We need you all to stand up," Toph ordered. She moved forward and doubled over, her hand touching the ground beneath Ikem's feet. "Are you part of the New Ozai Society?" she asked.

"What's that?" he replied.

The metalbender moved over to Zuko's mom. "Do you play a part in it?"

Ursa shook her head, not understanding, and although Toph couldn't see this, she could still feel the vibrations coming from Ursa's head moving side to side and her steady heartbeat.

"Are you involved in the New Ozai Society?" Toph asked, holding her hand below Kiyi.

"Mommy, she made the lemur fly away!" the little girl whined. "I want to see the lemur!"

"None of them have any link to it," Toph said, taking her hand away. "Let's go."

"What is this New Ozai Society?" Ursa asked, worried.

"A coup has begun in order to make Ozai the Fire Lord again, and we were just attacked a few hours ago by some of their warriors," Katara explained. "Since Toph can use her earthbending to tell if people are lying or telling the truth by the vibrations their heartbeat and breathing patterns emit when trying to deceive someone, we're checking everyone in the palace to see if they're a spy."

"My son is in danger?" Ursa gasped. "No...not after all this time...," she whispered to herself, incredulous. Her voice grew louder as she murmured, "We have finally been reunited, and now..."

"Don't worry," Mai said with determined dedication in her voice. "They're not going to be successful if _we_ have anything to say about this matter."

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© 2015 imaginator1


	9. Chapter 8

**The actions of Zuko finding his injured workers and searching for councilmen occurs simultaneously when his friends are running their own dusk-to-dawn investigation. This is why the gang finds the councilmen just after Zuko does.**

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

After moving the injured, unconscious firebenders and guardsman into the infirmary, Fire Lord Zuko and his bodyguards marched through the hallways of the palace. They went in search of his councilmen and soldiers who had been displaced from his throne room since he had ordered them out the previous day. His palace staff were scattered in their private quarters, since they knew not to come back inside until he granted them access again.

He replaced Tamotsu and his colleague with another pair of guards at the front gate, knowing they would be able to handle a long night standing guard after a day of inactivity. In addition, Zuko commanded five of the other Imperial Firebenders in the palace to guard the perimeter wall.

As night turned to day, he encountered a room with a sliver of light appearing underneath the door and flung it open; his three Kyoshi Warriors, although exhausted, loyally stood right behind him and showed absolutely no fatigue in their posture. Zuko knew that these fiercely relentless Kyoshi Warriors would never leave his side, unless he became twisted and power-hungry like his father.

As he took in the room, he noted that it was illuminated with fire from torches even as the sun began to rise. The light revealed all nine government and military officials kneeling on cushions around a low table. As he approached, they looked at him in bewilderment, seeing the rage on his face.

"Sir? Is something wrong?" one of his servants humbly inquired.

"Yes," he spat. "I was attacked yesterday by fifteen members of a group loyal to my father, and at least five of them worked at the palace! One of them was a guard, two others were soldiers, and another two belonged to the Royal Procession. So—which of _you_ are spies?"

"Sir, I think you should calm down," said another official cautiously. "You—"

"Why should I calm down?" he yelled. "You're telling me that I should relax after my _own_ people turned on me?"

His council members stared at him with incredulity spread across their faces, at a complete loss of what to say.

* * *

After leaving Ursa's bedroom, Mai continued leading the gang through the hallway. They were looking for the very last of the employees when she noticed an open door up ahead. Mai began sprinting towards it; the rest of the group took off to keep up with her.

"So none of you have _any_ relation to the New Ozai Society? How can I believe that?!" a familiar, yet furious voice exclaimed from the room as they drew closer. "Which of you are members?"

Peeking around the door, they saw Suki, Ty Lee, and another of their warriors standing before Zuko, whose hands were tightly gripped, his fists flaming. These were the council members they had been looking for! Toph was the first to enter, pushing past Mai. "Well, you'll find out soon enough," the blind girl stated.

The Fire Lord and all his servants, including his guards, glanced at the newcomers, shocked at the new group's swift entry. "All right, everyone on their feet. Spread out so that we can get started," Toph said.

"Are you really going to take orders from this Earth Kingdom girl?" one of the officials asked in astonishment.

"She's my friend— _and_ one of my guards. She is acting on my behalf. Furthermore, _I'm_ not the one taking orders from her— _you_ are!"

"Get up off the floor. Is standing up for a few minutes going to kill you?" she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

The nine officials slowly rose from their cushions and spread themselves out across the room, while Toph crouched down to feel for vibrations of truth or lies. "Are you a part of the New Ozai Society?" she asked the first one on the left.

"No," he answered adamantly, and Toph moved to the next man.

Toph continued this same line of questioning, carefully evaluating the vibrations of each man with her hand as well as her feet, just as she had done with Zuko's family. She wanted to ensure she was correct in this critical situation. "All right, Zuko," she said, rising. "Two of these workers are spies for your father's loyalists. The fifth guy and the third one to the right. And something is wrong with the second man's vibrations—he's telling the truth, but something doesn't feel quite right. He's definitely nervous—I think he might have known about the society for some time now, but must have chosen to avoid informing you."

"That's not true!" the man in the center exclaimed.

"How can she tell if we're truthful or not?" the seventh man asked. "Feeling the ground for lies seems like hocus-pocus! I'm loyal to you, Fire Lord Zuko!"

"I have total faith in Toph's abilities." He paused, taking time to absorb how profound the rebellion truly was. "Now that I know you two are involved in reinstating my father as the Fire Lord, you'll be kept in the Prison Tower! Toph, bend mobile prisons to hold them and get them out of my sight!"

The girl used her earthbending ability to trap the men in huge cones of stone, their heads barely poking out from a small opening where the apex would have been. She unfused them from the ground and levitated them out of the room, heading back into the hallway with her captives. "I think it would be better to keep them in the palace for now," Toph said to Zuko just outside the door. "It would take too long for me to go back to the Capital City Prison. I'll find another place to detain them for the time being."

"Very well," Zuko agreed.

"Where are you taking them?" the third Kyoshi Warrior whispered.

"I'm gonna lock 'em in one of the empty rooms we came across during our search through the palace. There is so much to do; we don't have the time to place these dissidents in the Prison Tower right now." She turned to face the warrior directly and said, "You should come with me and stand guard."

The guardswoman looked around, observing Zuko's large group of friends and her two colleagues. "All right," she replied. Then she tapped the Fire Lord on his shoulder and motioned to Toph, who was already halfway down the hall. He nodded, understanding, and returned his attention toward his council as Toph disappeared around the corner.

Toph stopped in front of a metal door a few minutes later, metalbending it open by sliding it to the left. She mercilessly flung the incased traitors onto the floor and then bent the door closed behind them and crushed its lock before walking back to the council room. "They don't stand a chance of escaping, but you should guard it anyway. We don't know who we can trust anymore."

The Kyoshi Warrior nodded and stood expectantly in front of the dismantled door, watching as Toph wound her way back to Fire Lord Zuko's temporary council chambers.

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© 2015 imaginator1


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

As Toph came back inside, the other seven officials became more uncomfortable, shivering slightly at her appearance.

Zuko stared at the remaining government workers in the room, his fists blazing. "So, even if you weren't in the society, which of you _knew_ about it?!"

The men quaked in fear. Finally, the second man nervously raised his hand. "I did, but I refused their offer. I didn't think it would be wise to rejuvenate the war, wiping out the peace we have established. I also thought you would make a strong Fire Lord because of all the strides you had made with the Avatar to end the unrest."

"Why didn't you _tell_ me?" the Fire Lord demanded. "You are _not_ loyal to me if you keep secrets like this for _two years_! You must be part of the New Ozai Society! Your disloyalty has put me in grave danger!"

Zuko stopped his tirade when Mai reached out and grabbed his wrist. He looked down at her hand on his arm in shock, then back at her. She had moved to within inches of him. At her touch, Zuko evaporated the flames coming from his right hand, and Mai moved hers down to hold his. He raised his left fist, which was still firebending, and pointed to the traitor. "Your insolent behavior is reprehensible. You deserve to be locked up with the other traitors!"

"S-sir," the man stammered, "I wasn't t-trying to be a traitor. Since I knew about them, though, the other two council members threatened to kill my family if I revealed anything, and I was too terrified for my loved ones."

"You could always have come to me at night and paid me an unofficial visit. My Kyoshi Warriors would have escorted you in. After debriefing us, we would have looked into it because it would have been a serious allegation you were making against your peers. Of course it goes without saying that while trying to confirm your story, we would have granted your family protection from my personal staff of Kyoshi Warriors."

"But I couldn't come to speak with you... Those two always took turns watching me, especially at night... But now that they're gone, well, I... I might be able to...to give you information that you can use to quash this rebellion...," the man stuttered.

"Tell me _now_ , or you'll be joining your friends!"

"Um...well, the organization is underground, literally. There is a gigantic cellar, under the capital's streets, where they meet daily. I believe that they continue to gain more members as the propaganda against you grows. The leader is the former governor of Omashu, or New Ozai, as we had named it after temporarily conquering that city, hence the name of the secret society. There is the other, obvious reason for the society's name, as I'm sure you are well aware."

"I already know of Mai's dad's role as the ringleader and the underground location!" Zuko yelled. "What else do you have on them? Fifteen or so came after me yesterday, so how many am I up against?"

"There are probably close to seventy; however with those fifteen gone, you've definitely lowered their numbers significantly. But remember, they're recruiting more accomplices every day. And...I...well, that's all I know."

The Fire Lord stared suspiciously at him. Then, looking at the other six councilmen, he said, "He is to be kept in isolation. You are to keep a close watch on this man. He is allowed no contact other than those approved by myself to monitor him. Also, his family is to be brought to the palace in secret and guarded in case it leaks out that he has talked." He turned on his heel and walked out, holding Mai's hand firmly in his, appreciating the strength her touch provided him.

* * *

"All right, I've had enough!" Zuko shouted once back in the throne room. "I can't even trust my own government! These rebels aren't getting another chance to attack me. _We_ are taking the next—the last—step."

"All we need now is the location of their secret headquarters to plan our next move," Sokka said, mentally beginning to strategize. He turned to Mai. "We need to sync up with you, Mai, to gain the location and best route to take. We'll attack without warning, granting us the element of surprise. Aang, Toph, and Zuko won't have a problem bending their natural elements, even if the base's floors are made of metal instead of stone. Aang, you could bend metal if you really needed to. And Katara, your water skins need to be filled to the brim in order to have the best chance of waterbending against them."

"Not necessarily. I _could_ just bloodbend our enemies to the floor, but I wouldn't stoop that low. And my water skins are already full. How do you think I fought those traitors yesterday? I try to always have water at the ready." True to her word, she had two large water skins strapped across her back and one skin resting on either hip and the small of her back, each of them bulging from their fullness.

"We can't attack past sunset," Mai stated. "The society's members don't sleep underground. The latest we should go in to have the best chance of success would be at dusk, since they'll be finishing up their evening meeting. But it doesn't really matter what time we begin the raid, since I doubt we'll be able to enter quietly," she continued. "I could hear my father's voice through the cellar door before I had even reached the bottom of the stairwell. That means the element of surprise will only last until we draw near. Whether Toph uses her metalbending or we are able to open the door the old-fashioned way, we _are_ going to get noticed."

Sokka groaned at the loss of the advantage of a silent entry but regained his composure. "Suki and Ty Lee will have their fans to handle the first onslaught of resistance. Don't forget to use their strengths against them."

"And we also have our shields and katanas," Suki added.

"And don't forget about chi-blocking," Ty Lee giggled, smiling romantically at Sokka. "Remember, I taught that skill to the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors! Although Suki wasn't in prison with us when I bonded with them through my lessons, I taught her right after we had returned to Kyoshi Island when the war was over."

Ignoring Ty Lee's romantic overtones, Sokka added, "Yeah, chi-blocking will be great, too. I should know," he said, crossing his arms at Ty Lee and looking annoyed as he recalled their battles against each other before she had crossed over to their side. "I doubt you'll need those shields, but the katanas will come in handy—wait! _Katanas?!_ You never trained me with your swords or shields—I didn't even know you _had_ them!"

"Relax, Sokka. Like you said, the fan is our main weapon of choice, and you know we don't always use it. Remember our little dance lesson?" Suki teased him. "I only used the fan to stop your punch; I didn't need it both times I made you drop to the ground. And you didn't have a long training session; it was only one day before you came up to speed," she reminded him.

The Water Tribe warrior grumbled, his irritation growing from both that embarrassing memory of their first "training session" and how he wanted more time to train with her. "I'll have my boomerang and bone club, and Mai will have her knives." He paused, observing her more closely. Mai was expertly skilled with knives; it seemed as if her weapons magically appeared out of nowhere, the long sleeves of her robes allowing her this slight of hand. "Where _are_ your knives?"

"Where they always are," she stated, pulling back her sleeves and lifting up her robe to reveal the sheaths on her wrists and ankles.

"We need to get some rest before we head to the society's base, so everyone should get some shut-eye," Sokka ordered. "It's not even noon yet, so that will give us a decent amount of time to recuperate. I'll be rounding everyone up about a half hour before we need to set off."

Zuko and Mai headed to their respective rooms, and Suki walked into the Kyoshi Warriors' sleeping quarters. After finding no one there, she headed outside to check up on the last five of her teammates. She found them training in a private clearing of the palace garden. Suki had two of them substitute in for her and Ty Lee. They would stand guard in front of Zuko's room, and another two would replace Ursa's guards. The last available teammate came to take watch of the team, bearing rolled-up mats for the gang to use for their much-needed rest.

The gang all settled down in the large, empty throne room. Aang put out the fire wall, leaving the room dark. With mats laid down, they fell asleep in short order, while the lone Kyoshi Warrior stood guard and waited for the sun to set.

* * *

"The sun is beginning to set!" shouted the Kyoshi Warrior.

Everyone but Sokka slowly blinked open their eyes and gathered themselves up. Katara looked over at her brother. "What's it gonna take to wake him up?" she complained.

"I think this'll do it," Toph said. Suddenly a collection of rocks shot up under Sokka's mat and lifted him high into the air as if he were jumping on a trampoline.

"Be careful, Toph!" Katara exclaimed. "He's going to need all of his strength! We don't need any injuries before we have even begun!"

Sokka landed on his side at an odd angle, finally opening his eyes. "What's going on?" he muttered in exhaustion. "Why did you wake me up?"

"It's time to get this party started," Suki rallied.

The situation came back to him, and he stood up, determined. "Let's get Zuko and Mai."

After they assembled together, the group exited the palace and stood in front of the perimeter wall's double doors. "Let's see just how mighty these traitors are," Sokka spat.

"No, let's show them _our_ might," Zuko announced. "Let's go!"

With an eager thrust to open the magnificent, towering doors that led to the street, they began their journey to the New Ozai Society's underground headquarters.

* * *

© 2015 imaginator1


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Mai looked around the capital, carefully observing her surroundings in the faint light of the setting sun. She was just passing the noodle shop she had visited with Kei Lo and was approaching a dilapidated sector of the city, where the underground headquarters sat. She motioned for the gang to follow. They trailed behind, with Sokka bringing up the rear.

The team of eight ended up in front of a stairwell with a solid, metal door at the bottom. Everybody looked down at the entrance to the New Ozai Society's headquarters, paralyzed with anticipation, waiting to see who would make the first move.

"All right," Fire Lord Zuko whispered to his crew. "We'll stop these conspirators and ensure that this coup ends tonight. They won't stand a chance against us, especially with the Avatar on our side." He glanced proudly at Aang before beginning his descent, silently leading the rest of them down.

"And so this is why we are going to reinstate the previous Fire Lord, Ozai," Ukano was heard saying, "and banish Zuko once and for all. Ozai was a much better ruler than his son will _ever_ be. Let us never forget who betrayed our nation and caused such devastating loss in the war—"

Zuko, fortified by the treasonous words he had just heard, burst open the door. "My father was so much _worse_ than me!" he yelled.

All of the society's members turned around, startled at seeing the current Fire Lord standing in their headquarters' entrance. "Zuko!" Ukano shouted and moved around a long table, where several Ozai loyalists were kneeling, to face him square on. "How did you get here? How did you find out about us?"

" _I_ told him," said another familiar voice from the shadows. "Unlike all of you, I remain loyal to my nation," the voice continued as Mai found herself taking center stage in the underground room in order to join her boyfriend.

"Mai!" her father cried. "How could you do this?"

"Like I said, I'm loyal to the Fire Nation instead of the politics of my father. This _coup_ you are promoting is the true betrayal to our country."

"Mai, you don't understand," said a young man kneeling at the discussion table. Observing him more closely, she saw that it was Kei Lo. "We lost a war that lasted an entire _century_ because of Zuko! What was the point of fighting for one hundred years? We were on the very brink of victory until Zuko decided to side with the Avatar."

"It was wrong," stated Aang as he and the rest of the gang came into view. "The Fire Nation does not have the right to rule the world. Zuko realized what was correct, and he set both himself and your nation on the right path, even if it meant seemingly moving backwards to better the country in the long run."

As the members took in Fire Lord Zuko and his warriors, they looked frightened both that the Avatar was standing in their presence and that there were more than just the two lovebirds to face.

"Why do you plan on reinstating my father? Aang used energybending to strip him of his firebending abilities. My dad won't be a true Fire Lord without being able to bend."

"What does it matter to _you_?" Ukano replied harshly. "Our main goal is simply to ensure that our nation has a proper ruler in place, and if that means impeaching you to reestablish Ozai as the supreme leader, then so be it. Secondarily, even if Ozai can't bend, his servants would be able to do that for him."

"Don't expect it to be so easy to dethrone me," Zuko warned Ukano as the rest of the members stood up from the table, readying themselves if they were needed to intervene on Ukano's behalf. "We are fighting against this injustice, and we won't be showing any mercy!"

"Mai, you must not take their side!" Her father's shouting escalated with each word. "I forbid it! This will look bad on the family—we will lose our honor!"

"No," Zuko said. " _You_ are the one losing your family's honor; _she_ is the one redeeming it."

"Come to us!" Kei Lo exclaimed, desperate for Mai to see reason.

"The only reason I would be joining you is to fight you."

The Fire Lord interrupted the dialogue that was going nowhere. "All of you are going down because I am going to wipe the idea of any more coups out of your minds!"

"Don't bother trying to intimidate us! We don't fear you—we wouldn't be in this society if we did!" Ukano shot back. "One of the reasons that Ozai was a much better Fire Lord was because he could frighten his servants into obeying him! If he were back in power, Ozai would not only have the nation restart the war, but he would end it in victory!"

Both sides spread out, preparing for the battle. For each of the eight in the Fire Lord's group, there were at least seven adversaries.

"Do you honestly believe that you can stop us?" Ukano asked. "You are greatly outnumbered, and your loss is predetermined. It is actually beneficial that you came here tonight; Ozai cannot waste any more time for the sake of this nation."

"Why do you say that?" demanded the Fire Lord.

"Because you're weak! You've been weak since the day you were born, and that scar from your father proves it. War requires sacrifice, Zuko! When you came back, you were too scared to continue the war, running away from your father. You had to train the Avatar in order for _him_ to end it!"

"You are wrong," Zuko growled in a dangerously low tone. "I was strong when I stood up to General Bujing's ruthless and immoral plan. Although I didn't have the courage to fight my father at the time, I did after returning home. Being banished gave me all the bravery and nobility I needed, and when the solar eclipse occurred, I was able to face my father. I was finally strong enough to leave him and join the Avatar in order to stop him from tearing the world apart."

He continued, "During my time away, I learned how to stop my fire from spewing forth in mere anger and hatred—and bend fire from its original source: from sun to dragon to man—the life and energy of the sun in my soul. Do you call _that_ weak?"

"Yes!" shouted Mai's dad. "That is the weakness—no, the failure of a traitor!"

Having been pushed to his limit, Zuko shot a blast of fire at the man, driving him back against the wall. "Failure?" the Fire Lord questioned threateningly, while simultaneously advancing. "There won't be any failure for _me_ today."

* * *

© 2015 imaginator1


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

The battle immediately commenced with Ukano being slammed against the wall as Zuko spoke. Some of the society's members began throwing knives at Zuko and his friends, while others wielded swords or firebent.

Katara bent water out of one of her large skins and took hold of it at one end, using it like a whip, with the water's tail striking her enemies. She began thrashing those in close proximity who had swords until they could no longer hold their own weapons, rendering them vulnerable to her water lashings.

Aang and Toph blocked the knives coming toward them by earthbending rocks from the ground and sending them flying at their attackers. Another set of knives from a traitor came zooming in their direction, one narrowly missing Toph's cheek. As their defense mounted, he and Toph stood back-to-back, bending the stone walls in an undulating pattern, causing the room to quake, throwing everyone off balance.

"Guys, don't be so reckless!" Sokka yelled over the din of combat as he wobbled across the room. "We don't need the base to be destroyed while we're all still in here!"

The two stopped creating tremors after his warning. Instead, they opted to bend rocks and fling them at random foes. Most of the society members quickly dodged the stones and either threw retaliatory knives or blasted fire at them. During this exchange, Toph felt the intention of each knife launch through the disrupted air vibrations. As Aang was kept busy continuously blowing out their fires, Toph metalbent the blades hurled at her to prevent their trajectories from becoming a danger to herself. She was able to gain control of them and send them right back at the knife-throwers, much to their astonishment.

Despite how easy it had seemed in the planning stages, there were still copious opponents; for every Ozai loyalist defeated, another two took their place. However, the bending masters, along with the skilled expertise of the rest of the team, had little trouble dwindling their numbers, one by one.

Suki and Ty Lee positioned their retractable wrist shields to protect against the knives being hurled at them. Their metal shields were crafted to withstand such attacks without leaving so much as a scratch on them before the weapons bounced off and fell to the floor.

As the knife attackers' stratagem adapted to the situation with assistance from a few of their own firebenders, the Kyoshi Warriors immediately retracted their shields and presented golden fans, encircling the traitors as they readied for the next tactical onslaught. Likewise, Zuko's bodyguards scrutinized the opponents, looking for any vulnerabilities. They quickly assessed what countermeasures would be most effective and began implementing their analysis into action.

They withered away their respective rivals' effectiveness after doing everything from using the traitors' own force from their violent fist strikes and kicks against them to keeping their enemies in a perpetual spinning motion much like a never-ending cycle of cartwheels. This last technique proved useful because their adversaries eventually succumbed to dizziness and careened to the ground. As the rebels lost the upper hand, Suki and Ty Lee then hit them on specific acupressure points to stifle their chi, leaving them prone and unable to firebend.

Sokka threw his boomerang at people standing far away while slamming his bone club against any rebels who came across his direct path. However, a couple swordsmen not focused on Katara managed to land a few superficial cuts on him, one of which briefly distracted him from the pain it inflicted. He refused to attend to his wounds and pressed on, using the tactic he had learned from Suki and causing the enemies' forces to betray themselves, defeating quite a few.

Mai, who stood close-by, flung shuriken at everyone in her line of sight, pinning them to the walls. She then ran forward and skidded into other enemies still standing, knocking them off their feet like bowling pins and following it up with superior knife-throwing prowess, not missing even a single one of her intended targets as she swiftly glided across the floor.

Aang blew huge gusts of air from his staff, knocking people around until they could no longer stand. Earthbending again, he fused the legs of others by gathering them into small, cylindrical stone cones. As the knife-throwers and swordsmen attempted to free themselves by chipping the rock away with their blades, he then remorselessly trapped their hands and weapons into the same rock cylinders, forcing them into a permanent crouching position as they futilely struggled to pull their hands out. As he withdrew from that fray, he sprinted as fast as the wind to the next nearest conflict and borrowed some of his girlfriend's water from one of her other skins and blasted his current antagonists. When he was finished with it, Aang placed the water back into Katara's skin, eliminating any distraction of her own mini-battles.

Zuko swung fire whips at the other firebenders, and Aang alternated between shooting his own fire to blowing harsh wind. The Avatar then jumped up high, airbending himself over to join Sokka and leaving the Fire Lord to deal with the firebending traitors. Zuko continued whipping his opponents, burning them in the process, but the enemy was relentless. Their persistence, however, did not intimidate him at all, even though he was clearly outnumbered. Zuko stifled his whips and negated the fire from one of his adversaries with a tremendous, retaliatory burst. The head-on fire encounter caused both of their flames to explosively blast many hanging tapestries that contained the Fire Nation's symbol and pictures of Ozai.

As the firebenders continued their assault, the underground base's tapestries and pictures burst into flames, unbeknownst to both sides as they were preoccupied with survival. Shortly thereafter, however, the voluptuous flames garnered everyone's attention as the heat began to engulf them. The screams and pleas of those that were immobile overtook the cacophony of the clangs and cries of battle. Many stopped mid-attack and glanced around in fright.

Mai, who had been preoccupied in her discussion with her father and Kei Lo and the ensuing battle, finally noticed the abundance of images hanging on the walls. Compared to her first visit when she had slashed the only hanging picture of Ozai, these same walls now showcased a plethora of images that proved this adversarial regime was about to launch a full-blown propaganda war against Zuko. As the fire raged, she moved forward, close to both Zuko and Katara, to examine the room better.

The cellar's decorations were engulfed in flames, but the young waterbending master took advantage of everyone's hesitation to extinguish the fire, but lost one entire, huge skin of water in the process. With the threat of being burnt alive eliminated, the fighting resumed. Katara rejoined the battle and engulfed a few of the firebenders in her water, freezing each in place in a sphere. As they angrily melted the ice around themselves with fiery explosions, she would just as rapidly raise the dripping water at their feet and bend it into ice again, forming dozens and dozens of tiny, sharp frozen darts. Aiming the icy daggers at each foe, Katara pierced their limbs, striking them down one by one, granting her the ability to focus her attention back to the swordsmen, along with earning an impressed nod from Mai.

Almost as soon as the battle had commenced, Ukano had been able to quickly right himself and nab a sword off of a practice dummy. It had taken him time to discover Zuko's whereabouts in the chaos of battle, but Ukano had eventually spotted him near the wall to his left. Unlike most of the swordsmen who were busy contending with the waterbender, he turned to square off with the young Fire Lord. Ukano was pleased to find Zuko preoccupied with the other firebenders and not capable of taking notice of him.

"I don't think so, Dad!"

Ukano spun around, stunned to see his daughter only a few feet away, holding several shuriken. With all the melee unfolding, he hadn't noticed Mai edging nearer. He was dumbfounded not only by her presence but by her willingness to attack him. Her father ducked as she aimed her stilettos at his shoulders. Mai moved on to her single-blade knives, but a swift grab toward her ankle holsters was not quick enough to fool her father. He deftly dodged her blades, with only one of them grazing the fabric of his shirt. As they continued their familial scuffle, Ukano was secretly impressed with his narrow escapes, though his disappointment and anger at her in this moment exploded.

"Hey, Katara, take care of the firebenders!" Sokka shouted as he noticed Mai's struggle with her father. "I'll fight the swordsmen! Zuko needs to deal with Mai's dad!"

Katara turned her attention to Zuko's assailants and moved in closer as her brother took her place in the brawl. "Move aside, Zuko! _I'll_ deal with them now! Go help Mai!" She extracted the icy knives from her enemies, who gasped in pain as she ripped the daggers from their skin. Katara then pooled her remaining water with the ice darts, creating an enormous wave, larger than any their enemies had _ever_ seen before. The moonlight provided her enhancement powers, which Katara propitiously used to her advantage. "It's tsunami time!" Without hesitation and in one swift motion, the cascading flood submerged the opposing benders and drenched their fire, knocking them out cold.

Zuko looked upon her during her attack, shocked that she would dare to give him an order. He had to remind himself that, despite being the ruler of his nation, this was the heat of battle. Not only that, but she was fighting on his behalf, and she was not here to lose. In addition, Katara was one of the few people who could still treat him as an equal—she would always have the right to call him by his forename because of their deep friendship.

As he observed the cellar in search of his girlfriend, he scanned the base and noted how fewer of his traitorous subjects were still enmeshed in battle. His eyes finally fell on Mai, where he perceived she was arguing with her father.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" Ukano asked angrily. "You're destroying the only hope your homeland has left! This coup is the best option at righting this wrong!"

"No, Father!" Mai yelled back. "This is the _worst_ choice possible! _You_ are obliterating the Fire Nation! We _need_ Zuko to run our country! He is a far superior Fire Lord than Ozai could ever be—Zuko has given us both our success in the world _and_ trust among the other nations!"

"You are wrong, my daughter!"

"You want to bet on that?" Zuko asked sharply from behind.

Ukano turned to face the Fire Lord. "Yes! You are a horrible, traitorous leader! Mark my words!"

"You'll _regret_ those words," Zuko stated matter-of-factly. He began shooting vigorous flames at Mai's father, resolute in stopping him from perpetuating dissension in the world. He smashed Ukano to a kneeling position of submission. The dawn's early light reinforced his blasts just as the remaining moonlight had for Katara's monumental tsunami strike. This granted him enough force against Mai's dad to shatter Ukano's ribcage before he even hit the ground, which left him howling in agony.

"Ukano has been defeated!" Zuko shouted over the clamor. "If you are wise, then you will stand down and accept your failure!"

Seeing their leader and numerous members lying on the ground, the society ceased combat against the Fire Lord's team and ruefully raised their arms in disappointing defeat. Suki and Ty Lee immediately chi-blocked all of the enemy to ensure their surrender.

"This is what happens when you oppose me!" Zuko shouted. "This victory has ensured that I am the one true Fire Lord!"

"Really, Zuzu?" a cold voice taunted him.

* * *

© 2015 imaginator1


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Blue flames spontaneously disintegrated one of the charred portraits of Ozai, causing everyone but Ukano to stare in astonishment; its ashes wafted to the ground, revealing an opening. Zuko's sister, Azula, appeared in the aperture and immediately jumped out of the hidden room. She appeared calm, which was quite unnerving because she had become mentally unstable during her last Agni Kai with Zuko. To see her now, she was decked out in full Fire Princess regalia, as if she had just come from a war meeting in the throne room.

" _Azula?_ " exclaimed the Fire Lord in bewilderment. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"How did you even _get_ here?" Sokka fired at her. "After your dad appointed you as the next Fire Lord and nominated himself as the Phoenix King, you totally lost it! You had to be locked up in an asylum until Zuko allowed you to help us search for your mother! The last time we saw you, you were running off half-crazed into the woods of Forgetful Valley! Zuko felt obligated to spend several days searching for you!" Then he muttered, "You seem like your sane, egomaniacal self again..."

"Isn't it obvious why I came back? Finding Mother and spending that time in Forgetful Valley brought me to my senses. I am now ready to fulfill my destiny!"

"This can't be good," whispered Katara.

"I am here to take my place as Fire Lord, just as our father had so bequeathed me the title after he became the Phoenix King," Azula announced with a sly grin. "Think back to Ba Sing Se, when Long Feng was the true leader and King Kuei was simply a figurehead. That's exactly what is happening here. When I came back and learned about this little society and its coup, I decided that my leadership was needed to right the wrongs. I am here to reinstate myself as the true leader of our nation. Though Father will sit upon the throne, everyone will know _me_ as the Fire Lord. Why else do you think I would be a part of this? As much fun as it will be to dethrone you, it will give me _more_ pleasure to restore myself as Fire Lord. This little fiasco is how I am going to get the throne back."

Zuko's mind reeled with all this new information. Memories of confronting Ukano about reinstating his father without the ability to firebend flashed back, causing him to comprehend Ukano's replies:

 _"Why do you plan on reinstating my father? Aang used energybending to strip him of his firebending abilities. My dad won't be a true Fire Lord without being able to bend."_

 _"What does it matter to_ you _? Our main goal is simply to ensure that our nation has a proper ruler in place, and if that means impeaching you to reestablish Ozai as the supreme leader, then so be it. Secondarily, even if Ozai can't bend, his servants would be able to do that for him."_

Coming back to the present, the Fire Lord commanded, "How did you learn about the New Ozai Society? What have you done? How are you involved?"

"I've been living in the capital for quite some time," she revealed with a smirk, once again shocking everyone but Ukano. "This princess," pointing to herself, "and proper Fire Lord of the great and glorious Fire Nation refuses to live in a forest or an underground cellar forever! I've had the privilege of residing in Ukano's home after our initial meeting at the base." Turning to her former friend, she derided, "Thank you for leaving him, Mai!"

Returning her attention to her brother, she said, "Anyway, Zuko, I returned about a month after running away. I was stealthily making my way back to the capital through an alley one evening, which happened to be near the base, and everyone was coming up the stairs. I noticed Ukano at the very back, trailing behind the pack. I waited until the rest were far enough away and then pounced. We headed back to the cellar and enjoyed a nice, long talk where I learned all about his delicious plan to overthrow you. From that day onward, I became the official leader of the coup, but left Ukano in place as the token figurehead. Behind the scenes, I gave him strict instructions, which he was to carry out and disseminate at the underground meetings. The others, gullible koala sheep that they are, had no idea I was ever tucked away in this little, secret room, eavesdropping on them and scrupulously watching their every move through a small patch of gauze woven into the tapestry. They all thought the new Ozai pictures were to restore the previous one Mai had slashed two years back. They reveled in the picturesque propaganda as encouragement to continue on with their coup endeavors, instead of realizing that the portraits were merely a ploy to hide me.

"And I'm sure you're curious as to _why_ I was hiding. The only reason I concealed myself in that room was in case the society's base was discovered and the members imprisoned. Being incarcerated does not frighten me, though, as I would have no problem breaking out of _any_ prison you would send me to, even the Boiling Rock! After all, _you_ escaped, Zuko, and that's saying something," Azula said, smirking. "The bigger issue is that I needed to be present when calling the shots for the takeover because maneuvering behind bars is not so effective. But, truth be told, it wasn't even worth the trouble to command this ragtag group. The loyalists, whether firebenders or not, are _we_ _ak_ ; there is no way I would ever trust them to not reveal that I was part of the New Ozai Society. They needed both more people for the cause and more time to train, which is precisely the reason I didn't have the society attack you yet, even though it's been almost two, long years now. I had Ukano order fifteen of the members to attack you as a litmus test. But just like I thought, those weaklings were of no use to me. I should have and _could_ have simply done it myself if you hadn't had those Imperial Firebenders at the ready. You're quite fortunate you do, since your other servants are good-for-nothings who are easily distracted and even easier to defeat. The Royal Procession is the only serious threat capable of stopping me because I am wise enough to admit that I couldn't have taken them on all at once, despite help from the two secret loyalists you recently uncovered."

Zuko let all this sink in, including how after Mai had defeated the society the first time, Azula had been covertly calling the shots almost from day one, just awaiting her chance to smite him down. While this news was crushing, realizing that she did not feel completely capable against his Imperial Firebenders definitely lifted his spirits.

The Fire Lord, recovering from this horrendous discovery, found his voice. "So you're here for a rematch?" He readied his arms in firebending formation.

"If that's what you want to call it," Azula retorted provocatively, indicating an air of boredom by pretending to examine her fingernails as if they were more interesting than the conversation taking place. "You won't be able to have your little waterbender friend in _this_ Agni Kai!"

" _I_ was only stepping in after Zuko protected me and almost died doing so!" Katara protested. "If you hadn't directed one of your blasts at me, then he wouldn't have had to defend me. It was _your_ actions that caused me to take over Zuko's fight!"

"Well then, let's see who the real Fire Lord is, shall we?" Azula boasted confidently to them both. Then, directing her gaze at Zuko, she taunted, "No cheating, Zuzu!"

"Speak for yourself!" he retorted. " _You're_ the one who cheated the last time we went at it, when you decided to fire lightning at Katara instead of me!" To the others, he said, "All right, everyone back up and stay clear of my sister and me in order to ensure a clean fight between us. I don't want this duel to go like the last one."

Everyone scurried away like scorpion bees. Zuko's friends took it upon themselves to bend their chi-blocked enemies and shove them against the back wall, with Aang airbending the majority of them up and over their heads. "What an exalted Fire Lord! You're not even going to follow our traditions and have our Agni Kai at sunset?" Azula asked mockingly.

" _You're_ the one who wants it now!" her brother shot back angrily, while humiliating laughter escaped from his traitorous subjects. "Besides, this isn't an open arena for Agni Kai, and there's no gong to signify the start!"

"Really? Then maybe we should leave this cellar—even in this horrible part of the capital, I'm sure there must be an arena somewhere!"

"You wish to be Fire Lord, don't you? That would require returning to the palace to have our duel with every ceremonial tradition to make it official!" Azula nodded her agreement. "Then we will have the most formal, proper Agni Kai possible—in the very chamber of the palace itself!"

"I have one condition, Zuzu," Azula said smoothly. "Since this will be the very same arena where Father burnt you, he must be there to witness my victory. I'm sure he'll be pleased to see me officially defeat you."

Zuko merely gave one curt nod to his sister. He was just as determined for their father to see his agile firebending prowess and how his abilities had grown over the years when he crushed Azula, their dad's favorite, prodigious child.

"Oh, and I almost forgot," she added cunningly. "Mother will need to be there, too. It would be an eternal shame if she missed the spectacle. Don't you think it would be a shame if she missed the show?" she coyly ended.

Zuko froze upon her last request, knowing Azula was trying to ensure her own victory by unnerving him. Although Zuko did not have to agree to her conditions and did not particularly wish for their mom to see them battling, especially in an Agni Kai, he knew she would want to know what was happening with her children. It would be worse if she were made to anxiously wait in her bedroom for the news. Besides his uncle, stepfather, and half-sister, his mother was the only other family member who truly loved him; therefore, her presence would bolster his strength and courage by simply being there. "Very well." _I won't let you down, Mother_ , Zuko thought. _An Agni Kai champion will no longer kill the losing opponent under my regime; this demented custo_ _m from_ _Great-Grandfather_ _Sozin'_ _s reign will end with me_ _. I will both save the Fire Nation from Azula and Father,_ and _I will find a way to spare her._

The entire bevy of witnesses were stunned the Fire Lord would allow this Agni Kai, let alone agree to Azula's conditions, although as the shock began to wear off, the society members who were still conscious appeared hopeful at another chance for victory. His seven friends looked uncertain of his decision, but they knew better than to try and change his mind.

* * *

As Zuko and his team left the cellar, Aang and Toph earthbent the stone walls to block off the staircase, trapping all the immobile, chi-blocked members of the New Ozai Society except Azula, who was perfectly mobile. As the group walked back to the Royal Palace, all of the day-shift workers they came across displayed great surprise and confusion as they noted the cruel, cunning former Fire Princess walking side by side with her brother. _What is going through Fire Lord Zuko's mind?_ his subjects wondered. _Why would he let Azula come back without a_ _straitjacket_ _? H_ _as h_ _e become as crazy as his sister?_

Zuko and his friends escorted Azula to one of the empty bedrooms, where she was to remain until sunset. Toph metalbent the door's lock, crushing it, just like the traitorous councilmen's room _._ The door remained heavily guarded by half of the Imperial Firebenders. Normally, Zuko would have rest assured that his sister would not be able to escape or cause any trouble when guarded by his friends, but with everyone exhausted from last night's events, Zuko thought it necessary his friends got some well-deserved shut-eye. He needed to know the palace's best possible defense was watching over his devious sister.

The weary Fire Lord ordered the other half to liberate the Kyoshi Warriors for the day and guard his mother and new family instead. Then he had Toph unlock the councilmen's room. Although all the members of the New Ozai Society were chi-blocked and quite a few of the firebenders remained unconscious, Zuko ordered up double the army detail. These guards were comprised solely of firebenders for increased security and were to round up the traitors in the underground headquarters along with the coned-up officials and deliver them to the Capital City Prison. After watching them leave, Zuko returned to his master suite and fell asleep as soon as he pulled up his blankets, not bothering to wait for Suki and Ty Lee to bring him two other personal Kyoshi Warriors for protection. Mai walked to her bedroom and collapsed into a deep slumber. Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph all came back to the throne room to crash out on the mats remaining there from yesterday. Although there were no windows to determine what Azula was up to, she was most likely sound asleep like Zuko. She probably wanted to be just as rested and fit as possible for their ultimate battle. However, Azula was an excellent, master manipulator, and anything was possible. Despite everyone having some doubt about her activities while locked up, they agreed she would want to be in top form and not sleep-deprived.

As the two Kyoshi Warriors ran through the hallway to find their colleagues, Mai rose from her decoy nap and silently sprinted toward the entrance hall. As she left the palace, the entrance guards threw back curious glances at her. Mai paid them no heed and scrambled onto one of the slanted rooftops of the palace to get to Appa. Pulling a letter out of her boot, Mai contemplated her options as the bored sky bison stared at her. _Can I just tell him where to go, or will I have to fly there myself?_ She glanced down toward the palace's double doors, wary of coming into contact with the Kyoshi Warriors before returning to her room. Mai whispered to Appa, "Fly to the Jasmine Dragon tea shop in Ba Sing Se and give the owner, Iroh, this note." Placing it in his saddle, she continued, "Once you have him in your saddle, fly straight back. Understand?"

Appa narrowed his eyes, and Mai took his knowing expression as comprehension of her orders. She murmured, "Yip-yip", and the great beast took off. Mai then climbed down and quietly dashed through the palace's main building, swift enough to pass by the entrance guards before they could seize her for an official inspection. She did not care that they yelled at her to come back. She ran from hall to hall, taking an indirect route to avoid detection from Zuko's bodyguards and safely made it back to her bedroom unperturbed.

Meanwhile, Suki and Ty Lee quickly found five of their colleagues: two heading out from Ursa's room and another two who had been guarding the traitorous councilmen, while the fifth one was still protecting the loyal, blackmailed councilman's family. The four unhampered Kyoshi Warriors joined up with each other on their way to the rose garden's private clearing to train. After revealing the news to Ursa's former bodyguards, Suki and Ty Lee returned to the Kyoshi Warriors' sleeping quarters, and the councilmen's guards continued on their way to the training yard, while the other two ran over to guard Zuko. Upon hearing him moan, they cautiously entered his bedroom, wondering if there was anything wrong. They noticed their charge tossing and turning, as if his dream was causing him great distress. They knew to not awaken him and felt a huge cloud of concern about what emotional state he would be in when he woke up.

All of Zuko's best friends began to mentally brace themselves for the final battle between him and Azula.

In the meantime, Zuko's nightmare was like rapid-fire snapshots of his most horrific life events:

" _Please, Father._ _I only had the Fire Nation's best interest at heart. I'm sorry I spoke out of turn!"_

 _Ozai began slowly walking forward and announced, "You will fight for your honor."_

" _I meant you no disrespect. I am your loyal son."_

 _Ozai continued his advancement and yelled, "Rise and_ fight _, Prince Zuko!"_

" _I won't fight you," Zuko begged._

" _You_ will _learn respect, and_ suffering _will be your teacher," his father replied._

 _Enormous flames engulfed Zuko's face. "Nooo...!"_

* * *

" _Dad's going to kill you!" Azula taunted. "Really, he is."_

" _Everything I've done, I've done to protect you," Ursa said, hugging him one last time before walking away._

The scenes from childhood continued in his mind, flying in time to the solar eclipse.

" _What happened that night?" Zuko demanded._

" _My father, Fire Lord Azulon, had commanded me to do the unthinkable to you, my own son, and I was going to do it," Ozai revealed._

 _In his mind's eye, lightning blasted from his father to him._

* * *

" _At the end of this day, you will have your honor back. You will have Father's love. You will have everything you want," Azula assured him manipulatively._

" _Zuko, I am begging you. Look into your heart and see what it is that you truly want," Uncle Iroh pleaded._

His dream continued to the fight with Aang and Katara at Ba Sing Se and its aftermath.

" _I betrayed Uncle," Zuko said after the battle._

" _No, he betrayed you," Azula replied._

* * *

" _I love you, Mai," Zuko said._

" _I know. But lately I've realized that you love your secrets_ more _," she responded. "You'll have an easier time keeping them when you're alone."_

" _What are you telling me?" he asked._

" _Goodbye, Fire Lord."_

" _Mai! Come back! I—I—_ I order you to come back! _"_

* * *

 _Zuko looked at his dad and then down at the ground in stern concentration of what to do about the Harmony Restoration Movement, the tension high. "I need your advice..._ Father _."_

 _Ozai smirked._

* * *

 _Zuko anxiously grabbed the letter from Azula's boot:_

 _My dearest Ikem,_

 _It's taken me a long time to admit it, but you were right. I belong with you, and nothing is worth this pain. My one consolation is our son Zuko. When I look into his eyes, it's as if I'm looking into yours. My thoughts are with you always._

 _Love,_

 _Ursa_

The words in this letter swirled round and round in his thoughts, hitting him hard. Two of the smallest words held the most profoundness—'our son'. _Am I Ikem's son and not Ozai's? he wondered. Am I not the true Fire Lord?_

* * *

 _How will I save Azula, yet defeat her in this Agni Kai? I must ease Mother's depression—she can't lose either of her children again!_

* * *

Thoughts and memories recurred throughout Zuko's dream, giving him on-going emotional pain and misery. This was _not_ the right time for this nightmare, but Zuko persisted in his horrible sleep despite the torment. He was relentless to both win and save Azula in the Agni Kai. This was his duty as Fire Lord.

* * *

© 2015 imaginator1


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Many Earth Kingdom citizens of Ba Sing Se were relaxing in a magnificent tea shop, known as the Jasmine Dragon. Quite a few of the patrons were playing Pai Sho. One of the players stopped in the middle of his turn and looked toward the doorway upon hearing a low growl. Curiosity getting the better of him, he forwent his customary cup of tea and stepped outside to investigate. He found a sky bison lingering anxiously in front of the decorative fountain. The bison snorted, which startled the man, who then dashed back inside the tea shop.

His eyes darted frantically around the room, searching for the owner. "Um, sir?" he asked apprehensively after finding Iroh playing Pai Sho with one of his customers. "I think you should have a look outside."

Iroh stopped his game and surveyed the frightened man. "What could possibly be there to suggest such urgency?" he questioned as he walked out of his shop.

Iroh blinked in disbelief as he saw the flying bison. "Appa? Why have you come here? Does somebody need my assistance: my nephew? The Avatar?"

Appa grunted once and shifted his body weight until a solitary piece of paper slid out from his saddle. Iroh quickly read the note and shortly thereafter revealed to his clientele that he was closing his tea shop for the rest of the day. His loyal customers became disgruntled at this announcement until he reassured them that it would promptly reopen tomorrow and that they would all receive a free cup of tea as compensation for today's early closing. Upon ushering everyone out, the old man jumped up into the saddle, and the two flew off to Capital City.

* * *

The Fire Nation Royal Palace's Agni Kai chamber was filled to the brim with a massive audience of Fire Nation citizens, eagerly awaiting the debut of the duel between the Fire Lord and his sister. There were also others from the farthest reaches of the globe, as rumors of the clandestine battle had spread like wildfire. Most of the various countries' citizens were of high rank, including both Water Tribe Chiefs Arnook and Hakoda, Earth King Kuei, and the Order of the White Lotus members whom Uncle had brought to free Ba Sing Se from the domination of the Fire Nation, the likes of which were King Bumi of Omashu, Pakku, Piandao, and Jeong Jeong. Zuko was pleased to see these people in the audience, especially the White Lotus members, who fortified his resolve that this was a fight for his people. He greatly wished his uncle were there as well, but just as he had told Suki, Uncle Iroh deserved to be left alone for a while.

* * *

Along with Ursa, Ikem, and Kiyi, Zuko and Azula's father sat in the first row. Their father was firmly restrained with rigid metal chains that bound together his chest and arms and another set of chains that constrained his legs. Even though his present condition seemed dire, Ozai smiled contently as he noted his son's trademark scar and the abdominal burn that his daughter had caused in his children's last Agni Kai. While the rest of the audience was in a state of heightened excitability, if anyone should have been considered uncomfortable, it was Ursa. Although Kiyi was extremely frightened of the upcoming event to the point of clutching Momo ever so tightly that the winged lemur could scarcely breath, Ursa herself was visibly gasping for air. Knowing she would be observing her children battling each other—and in an Agni Kai, no less, where the loser rarely survived—horrendously plagued her with angst only a mother understands.

 _I don't want to lose these children yet again_ , she thought sadly. _Why does Zuko always have to duel his family?_ After noting Ozai's smug smile, these maternal feelings of distress paralleled the agitation she felt due to his proximity, despite him being secured and closely monitored by Zuko's seven friends.

Ursa shivered at Ozai's condescending attitude, recalling how Zuko had gotten his two scars: the one on his abdomen from his former fire duel with Azula, and the other from his own _father_! Ursa's false letter about Zuko being Ikem's son instead, in order to prevent their son from ever becoming like Ozai, had greatly angered the former Fire Lord, and he had decided from then on to treat Zuko as an outcast. It was heartbreaking to know that she, his own mother, had been the one to cause Ozai's wretched treatment of his son, regardless of him always showing preferential treatment to Azula.

 _How could Ozai have done such a horrible thing to our son?_ she thought achingly as her eyes began to tear up. She tried to console herself by telling herself, _Ozai had a choice. He didn't have to challenge Zuko to an Agni Kai merely for talking out of turn!_ However, it was of no use; her mind continued to dwell on the dire situation. _Zuko had been trying to be the best Fire Prince possible and simply spoke out of turn, albeit justifiably. His refusal to fight you, Ozai, was noble_ — _although he was frigh_ _tened to face you, he still would have if you weren't his father—his love for you was so great that he resisted sending his own father to a fiery death!_ _You didn't end his life, yet you still banished him afterward!_ _You may think that was a merciful act, Ozai, considering Fire Lord Sozin thought sparing your opponent was weak,_ _but your actions were cruel and unjust that day!_

As Ozai sensed himself being watched, he glanced around until he spotted the fixated pair of eyes that bore into his, and his smirk grew even broader. Ursa immediately averted her eyes back to their children.

* * *

The two siblings were completely prepared for this Agni Kai, both barefoot and sporting a red tippet across their shoulders. As ceremony dictates, they were kneeling down on one leg between the pair of flaming pedestal bowls at their respective ends of the arena, their backs to each other. Zuko was wearing nothing more than his monpei and leggings, while Azula had adorned herself with everything but her royal armor. Suddenly, without fanfare, the two rose and, simultaneously, turned to face each other, their tippets dropping to the floor.

"Ready to lose the crown, brother?" Azula asked. "I've been wanting to be an only child for a very long time!"

"You're not going to become Fire Lord! That is _not_ your destiny—it is _mine_!"

"How would you know?" she asked derisively. "I've come here to claim _my_ destiny!" And with that, the gong to begin the duel was struck.

Wasting no time, Azula immediately fired a major blast of her legendary blue fire at her brother. Zuko negated the fire with a gigantic burst of his own, which caused their clashing flames to spread to the outermost edges of the arena. This magnificent display charred parts of the arena, turning the stone red and black from the infernal heat that was expelled.

Azula changed tactics. "What a disgrace!" his sister taunted him. "You're the Fire Lord, and yet you still can't produce blue fire! You're pathetic; you don't remotely come close to firing lightning! What a magnificent Fire Lord you turned out to be!" She paused to sarcastically laugh at Zuko's lack of prowess, while easily negating a blast from him at the same time. "Remember our time searching for Mother? I _told_ you that even when you're strong, you're still _weak_!"

Zuko narrowed his eyes angrily. Despite being able to redirect lightning and having continued his training while serving as the Fire Lord, he still wasn't as skilled as his sister even after all this time. Zuko, deeply offended, forced himself to remain calm; he was doggedly determined not to return to his old firebending strategy of drawing fire from his anger and hatred. Instead, he adhered to being faithful to the true purpose of firebending by creating it from his desire and devotion to preserve peace and balance in the world. This made him stronger, as he continued to draw upon this energy from his life's intentions. Although unbeknownst to Zuko because his focus was on his sister's vicious light display, a few sporadic light purple blasts began to emanate from him.

"Our father couldn't produce blue fire either," he countered. "But I can _redirect_ lightning!" Zuko announced confidently as he continued to shoot flames in her direction. But unlike their past Agni Kai when Azula had been slipping into insanity, she was at the top of her game today even without the influence of Sozin's Comet, making this duel all the more arduous.

The spectators were glued to their seats as the two blasted away at each other for what seemed like forever, neither one conceding. Above the ruckus of the fray, audible gasps escaped from the crowd when Azula shot another enormous streak of lightning at her brother, which Zuko blasted back. She dodged her redirected shot to create a gigantic burst; Zuko instantly formed his own, and the two fires clashed, creating a tremendous explosion. The intensity of the flames' collision jolted them both to the ground and billowed out toward the crowd of onlookers. The residual cloud of smoke blocked both their field of vision, temporarily halting their attack strategies. But just as the haze began to clear, a blast of lightning came straight toward him, catching him unaware. Panic-stricken though he was, Zuko was able to harness it in the nick of time.

The siblings continued their volley, with Zuko dodging and redirecting Azula's lightning and sending smatterings of his own fire blasts. Suddenly one fierce spray sent her flying up and away to the very last stone step of the arena. She collapsed, unmoving; Zuko edged nearer in hopes of ending the duel with one final blast. However, Azula abruptly raised herself with a calculating smile and continued her rampage against Zuko as she advanced, step by step, back to the arena floor.

With each attack, the chamber quickly became enveloped in smoke, making it difficult for the audience to discern the whereabouts of Zuko and Azula, despite the luminous firelight they were creating. The suffocating plumes were even shrouding the two firebenders from their own line of sight, but they riskily continued shooting in the general direction of the other's shots. The devious sibling used the smoke to her advantage, firing lightning in every direction possible in an attempt to confuse and overwhelm her brother. Zuko barely saw the blasts piercing the smog until the last second before hastily redirecting them up toward the ceiling. Due to her crazed attacks, stonework crumbled, landing on the arena floor. Now Zuko was not only dodging his sister's wrathful lightning but the falling debris.

The profuse smog seemed to cover Zuko's mind as well as his eyes, reminding him of his nightmares. Thoughts of his coronation and all the terrible past events were replaying at this most inopportune time. He didn't know if he could survive this duel when these memories were wreaking havoc on his concentration.

Then, miraculously the smoke slowly began to evaporate, and Zuko attempted to refocus, but the horrid memories of his recent distressing dreams continued to unrelentingly bombard him.

 _I know that letter was fake. I'm Ozai's son, his heir, and the true Fire Lord! Yet Father always greatly favored Azula over me, even before that lie of a letter ever surfaced._

Zuko struggled to shut these thoughts out, having long ago come to terms with the fact that his sister had always been their father's favorite, especially after the false letter proclaimed him Ikem's son instead of Ozai's.

 _Burning and banishing me wouldn't have been much of an issue even without it! Father, your version of mercy was hard to swallow. I'm actually surprised_ _you showed me_ any _mercy_ _—since you were willing to kill me as a child just for power! Furthermore, it's_ _utterly devastating to know that Azula had not lied_ _—_ _you really were going to end my life!_ _I_ never _received your fatherly lo_ _ve,_ _but only through my accomplishments did you_ _acknowledge m_ _e!_

Blue fire shot through the smog, startling Zuko back to the present. He swiftly negated it with his own burst of fire as he attempted to suppress those disdainful memories, because keeping his mind on the duel was tantamount. However, thoughts of his childhood persisted in tormenting him almost as much as this duel with his sister.

 _When I joined the Avatar, they accepted me as their friend and Aang's firebending mentor! When I was apart from Uncle, this group felt more like family than I had ever known. When it was time to take down Father, Uncle forgave me for choosing Azula instead of him to defeat Ba Sing Se and returned to once again think of me as his own son! Thankfully I also have my mother, Mai, a stepfather, and even another sister!_

He shook his head to clear his mind and jumped onto his hands as if he were invoking Ty Lee's acrobatic prowess. Zuko spun around in a circle, fire blasting from his feet; the color seemed to be turning lighter and lighter purple.

 _I will never regret my choice of saving the older colonies and creating the United Republic with Aang. And I did it without_ _becoming_ _a tyrant like my dad! And I_ _will_ not _become one now! I'll make you proud, Mother! And I'll show you_ _, Father,_ _just how powerful I have become without being oppressive to my people_ _!_

As the last of his thoughts dissipated along with the smoke, so did all of the turmoil he had held in his heart, as if waterbending the ink off a piece of paper. Suddenly feeling lighter than he ever had since returning home after his banishment and subsequent coronation, Zuko gathered the energy from his soul and fired another blast at his sister. Azula didn't even blink, her concentration fiercely on the Agni Kai.

As the siblings continued their duel, with both equally determined to win, Zuko finally noticed the change in color of his fire. _Am I rising to Azula's level?_ he wondered. _Can this truly be happening?_

During his ill-timed introspection, Zuko narrowly dodged a strike from his sister, to which he barely countered, his fists blazing with blue fire. The intensity of his blast caused Azula to uncharacteristically stumble and look on in astonishment. Taking advantage of her misstep, Zuko immediately shot a barrage of blue fire at her, although she blocked it, creating an enormous explosion where their blasts collided.

Zuko immediately began gathering all the yin and yang around him, and the positive and negative energy enveloped him. He swiftly separated the two energies, only to bring them back together, unleashing lightning as Azula had never seen before. Azula stood frozen in her tracks upon witnessing this development. Zuko of course took advantage of her immobility and shot the lightning at his sister, singeing her. Not wanting to fatally harm his sister, he purposely avoided striking her heart. But with that one crucial hit, the duel was over; Zuko had marked her chest, ensuring victory.

As he ran toward his sister, Zuko commanded, "Katara, come here! I need you to evaluate Azula's health! You, too, Aang!"

As the audience sat in stunned silence, both benders came flying down to the center of the arena, Aang airbending himself and Katara swiftly gliding on a sheet of ice she created from one of her water skins. They came upon Azula to find her splayed out on the ground at a most peculiar angle with a hole in the upper part of her robe.

"Don't worry, Zuko," Katara responded after placing her water-covered hands over Azula's bosom. "Your lightning was graciously survivable. Your sister will live. But since you burnt her through her robe and seared her skin, she has officially lost this fire duel." She paused, deep in thought, then started up again, "You realize you now have the ability to bend lightning and blue fire just as _she_ does! This must have come from having conquered the emotional turmoil deep inside yourself. So, not only does your triumph over Azula increase your people's will to accept you as their leader, but because you have displayed legendary abilities in the arena today, they will be proud to call you their Fire Lord."

"What do you want me to do?" Aang asked.

"I want you to energybend her, just like our father."

"Are you certain?" Aang quizzed him.

"Yes," Zuko responded confidently. "She will still be an excellent martial arts master with her agility and flexibility, along with her wit and cleverness. But this will remove any harm she can render from firebending, making her less of a threat, especially if she tries to escape from prison. Remember, this will not be her first time behind bars. Recall that even while wearing a straitjacket after the chi-block wore off on her in the asylum, she was able to escape back to the palace."

The Avatar nodded solemnly and placed one hand each on Azula's forehead and chest, causing a brilliant glow to permeate from both of them as he energybent her. Azula began stirring as Aang finished capturing her firebending ability. The glow from this was abruptly extinguished as her powers evaporated. When she awoke and regained awareness of her surroundings, she immediately attempted to shoot fire at Zuko, not realizing the duel was over. When it failed to materialize, she glanced around, dazed and disoriented by her ineffectiveness. As the realization she had lost the Agni Kai to her brother struck her, Azula attempted to fire against Aang, Katara, and Zuko, but no flames appeared.

"What have you done to me?" Azula accused Aang. "Why can't I firebend?!"

"I have done to you what was done to your father. I have removed your firebending abilities," he confirmed.

Azula uttered a piercing primordial scream, tears pouring out of her eyes, while the three benders converged on her, detaining her in short order. Meanwhile, Zuko's other friends and bodyguards readied Ozai to a standing position, who was seething as if he were a volcano about to blow.

"You failed me, Azula!" he spat venomously. "Now I see why you are not Fire Lord—you are the _Failure Lord_!"

Without giving either one any more time to argue, the Royal Procession gathered Azula up as Zuko's team brought her front and center to the captivated audience. Amazingly, she appeared emboldened even though she and her father were restrained, yelling as she was shamefully hauled from the arena on her way to the Capital City Prison.

"Why didn't you actually finish the duel?" one of the spectators crossly demanded of Zuko. "The loser of an Agni Kai is supposed to _die_! Mercy is considered weak!"

Then realization struck the citizens as Zuko commenced with his decree. "Not anymore!" Zuko declared, his voice filling the stadium. "That 'tradition' only began during Fire Lord Sozin's reign; firebenders rarely ever killed each other in an Agni Kai before his ruling. Therefore, unless you are attempting to avenge the malicious death of family or friends from this day henceforth, this custom is no more. It officially ends today!"

The spectators began gossiping to each other about the Agni Kai, both about their Fire Lord's new, legendary firebending powers and of course his most unexpected announcement. Just as Katara had indicated, many of his subjects seemed proud of him for taking such a stance. Women, more specifically mothers, appeared relieved with his ruling, but bitterness clung to others as the magnitude of this change in law seemed to indicate renewed weakness in their ruler.

Suddenly, a lone person was heard clapping, silencing all the chatter. Both the audience and the Fire Lord glanced curiously to see a solitary figure up high in the stands, his hands pounding together in pride.

"Well done, my nephew," Uncle Iroh said. "You have made me proud today. Not only have you spared your sister, but have ended your great-grandfather's horrible custom. And you have finally overcome your turmoil, making you quite capable to now firebend lightning and even emit blue fire! You are truly meant to be our Fire Lord!"

While Ursa quietly wept both tears of joy for her son and sadness for her daughter, the spectators' applause grew until even the bitter faces thawed and accepted their leader.

"Uncle?" Zuko asked in confusion. "How did you know to come?"

"Mai sent me a letter via Appa this morning. She figured I would not want to miss this moment."

Zuko turned to look at Mai, who surprisingly blushed a little. He smirked and coquettishly whispered to her, "I'll deal with you later."

* * *

After Uncle Iroh's speech, Sokka immediately turned and hugged Suki, planting a big kiss on her, not waiting until the reception ended.

When the Agni Kai fanfare finally concluded at twilight, Zuko and Mai took a stroll in the palace garden, the rest of the gang close behind.

At a clearing, the two stopped and, standing only inches apart, gazed warmly at each other. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about visiting my father. I just thought it would be best if you didn't know."

"I understand, and I forgive you. I sent Appa to bring your uncle as soon as we returned to the palace," she confessed. "I thought he should be there, since he so willingly stepped in as a father figure. But I just determined it would be better if no one else knew about it, as you were worrying so about your mother; after all, _everyone_ has secrets," she teased by quoting him. "A great surprise for the both of you!" Mai then hugged him in a firm grasp.

He embraced her for a few seconds, but then let go of her, chuckling for a moment. "Well, before I accept your forgiveness, I have something to say to you." Mai stared up at him, anxious. With a fraudulently stern expression, Zuko continued, "Just as you scolded me three years ago, it's my turn now." He paused, softening his tone. "Don't _ever_ break up with me again."

Mai began laughing and leapt forward, landing hard on Zuko, who tumbled backwards. The two became a jumble of intertwined limbs at the edge of the field. Once untangled, Mai wrapped her arms around him, and the Fire Lord enveloped her in a tender embrace, his chuckles becoming peals of laughter. Mai laughed so uncontrollably in response that even optimistic Ty Lee was stunned. Finally after they edged ever so slightly apart, Zuko moved in for a kiss. When they let go of each other, Sokka frowned and muttered, "Oogie", which broke the spell.

"How come it's not gross when you kiss Suki?" Katara teased her brother, bringing another round of laughter from everyone but Sokka.

* * *

© 2017 imaginator1


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

The next day, all the Ozai loyalists except Azula and Ukano were removed from their cells in the Prison Tower and taken in small groups to various Fire Nation prisons all across the country. It was under strict orders that they were to be separated in order to prohibit the possible reunification of the rebels, if by chance, they were to escape.

Zuko refused to have both coup leaders placed in the same prison, so Ukano was transferred to the Boiling Rock, away from Azula, who remained in the Capital City Prison. This order delighted the warden of the Boiling Rock, because even though Mai had spoiled his prison's perfect record when helping to free Zuko and four others, he still deeply cared for his niece and felt personally betrayed that her father would have created this coup to both impeach and possibly murder her boyfriend, the Fire Lord.

* * *

Although Zuko was wary of his sister being held in the same prison as their father, knowing that neither Azula nor their father could firebend gave him a bit of relief.

As for their mother, Ursa came to visit her daughter every day for weeks, hoping she could give her child some comfort. However, her attempts were in vain because Azula had returned to a state of insanity, weeping incessantly for days at a time in her cell. Though Ursa was tolerant, the guards were bewildered as to why Zuko hadn't transferred his sister into an asylum again, with her continual shrieking, which they were forced to endure ad nauseam.

Toward the end of her first month being incarcerated, the guards encountered Azula screaming about how Ursa thought of her as a monster who should be forgotten and how her mother had a different daughter whom she loved more because her half-sister was beautiful and perfect, unlike herself.

Azula's days of weeping and wailing in prison came to an abrupt end, however, on the day she reached through the cell bars and timidly laid her hand in her mother's.

Without hesitation, Ursa squeezed her daughter's hand compassionately. "I do not think you are a monster, Azula," she said softly. "You simply did not have a mother to teach you better, and because of this, you followed in your father's footsteps."

* * *

As news of the Fire Lord becoming a firebending prodigy spread, those who had disavowed him as their Fire Lord now accepted him simply due to his newfound prowess. With this wave of popularity, quite a few of his subjects stepped forward to become councilmen. But before Zuko chose two to complete his council of nine, he had Toph check their heartbeat and breathing patterns to determine if any had traitorous intentions. Once they were cleared, Zuko then proclaimed that the new councilmen and their families could move into the palace alongside the other council members.

In addition, Michi and Tom-Tom moved from their tiny apartment into a luxurious room in the palace due to Zuko's kind offer, and Mai contentedly moved into the master suite with Zuko.

As for Sokka, despite living in the Southern Water Tribe with Aang and Katara, he would visit the Fire Nation Royal Palace every so often to meet up with his girlfriend, Suki, and train with her, even though he had to follow the Kyoshi Warrior traditions by wearing the kimono and face paint. As days turned into weeks, Sokka found himself practically living at the palace in order to perfect his skills. This dedication paid off, as he was eventually granted the official title of Kyoshi Warrior. Not only did he now live full-time at the palace but he had the benefit of being able to practice with the katana in order to become a master swordsman just as Piandao had predicted. This, and living with Suki, made suffering the humiliation of wearing the kimono worth it. By the time he grew accustomed to donning the traditional dress, Suki had tailored his warrior uniform to better suit his manly physique as well as restore his pride.

As no other boy in history who had ever been allowed to become a Kyoshi Warrior had been given this privilege, it was rumored that his special outfit came with a price; some teammates claimed to have heard Suki threaten him on one occasion. "You dump me, and the only 'pants' you'll ever wear again when on duty will be your undies," which had made Sokka chuckle, as well as those who had been eavesdropping.

* * *

The Fire Lord walked over to his mother's quarters and knocked, wondering if this was the right thing to do. Ursa opened the door and cheerfully ushered him in.

"Hello, Mother," Zuko said. "Um, is Ikem here? I was hoping to have a chat with him."

Ursa nodded and led him to the dining room, where Kiyi and Ikem were awaiting lunch. "Ikem, Zuko would like to speak with you," announced his wife.

Ikem looked up in surprise but graciously walked over to the Fire Lord, while Ursa finished preparing the noonday meal. "How can I help you?"

"How did you know my mother was the one? Were you scared to declare your love for her? How did you propose?" he asked in rapid-fire succession.

Zuko's stepfather smiled knowingly. "Don't worry. Mai will say yes. Although I must admit the Agni Kai with your sister will seem easier than proposing marriage, until you pop the question and she accepts."

Zuko gulped in fearful anticipation, Ikem's advice not helping settle his nerves. _How should I declare my true feelings? Would she really say yes?_ Though still unnerved by the thought of his upcoming proposal to Mai, he thanked Ikem, kissed his mom, and waved goodbye to Kiyi.

Days passed and, after much contemplation, Zuko determined how he would propose. That same evening, under the light of a single finger flame, in order not to awaken Mai, he began to write a letter to Toph.

* * *

Toph felt a bird land on her shoulder early one morning and raised her hand to accept the contents the hawk carried. After untying the canister, she handed it to Ho Tun to sift through its contents.

"Whoa!" he said softly, peering at the beautifully wrapped bundles as he opened each one with care.

"Is there a letter? Tell me what it says!" Toph demanded.

"Right," her student said, quickly unsealing the envelope and removing the letter.

"Dear Toph,

I need a ring, but not just any ring, a special ring for my beloved Mai. I would be greatly

honored if you accepted this metalbending behest. I have sent along enough gold for you to be

able to create the ring as well as a stiletto. The enclosed stiletto from Mai's collection and tiny

gold piece with the carved Fire Nation flame emblem on it are templates to help

with the design. Time is of the essence because if Mai finds out one of her knives is missing, she

will be furious.

Thank you for your service and your discretion,

Fire Lord Zuko."

"Well, well," Toph said pompously. "He must think me a great earthbender with this request." Secretly flattered, she set to work without delay.

Even with Zuko's loose instructions, the ring was a delight to create. Toph opted for a simple band with an engraved flame across its entire circumference. The stiletto, on the other hand, required more care as the fit, weight, and counterweight all had to be included at the same time as the engraving detail of the handle occurred. The project's design intricacies had her working well into the night and the next day, but she was able to complete the task before the next nightfall. As Toph wrapped everything up, she smiled, knowing she played a part in Zuko's nuptials.

* * *

Pacing anxiously each night, the Fire Lord awaited for his messenger hawk to return. Two days later, his bird arrived with a package. He opened up the letter and delightedly found along with the coin and stiletto he had sent as design aids, a beautiful gold ring engraved with the Fire Nation's emblem and a beautifully carved dragon on each side of the new gold stiletto. He reached for the letter, relieved Mai had not noticed anything was missing.

 _Dear Zuko,_

 _You are quite lucky I'm your friend because you are now in possession of one of the finest wedding bands in all the nation and one of the most beautiful stilettos ever forged. After all the hours spent to create these masterpieces for you, she had better say yes._

 _Toph_

Zuko chuckled at Toph's pomposity but also smiled at her unparalleled talent in metallurgy. As he was contemplating this, he heard a noise and turned around, almost bumping into Mai, who had just come out of their bedroom, sleep still in her eyes.

"What is it?" Mai asked. "A letter?"

The Fire Lord nodded and as casually as possible said, "From Toph, written by one of her students." Anxious at being caught with the ring, he made a spur-of-the-moment decision and set the letter down on the table, deftly swiping up the ring into his palm. Quietly, without hesitation, he got down on one knee and looked up at the woman he loved. "Mai, beautiful, lovely Mai, I would like to know if you will share your life with me?" he asked, opening his hand and presenting her with the ring.

Mai appeared momentarily dazed, but then graciously placed her hands on his, softly declaring, "Yes," as she guided Zuko to put the ring on her finger.

"I love you, Mai. You've made me happier than you'll ever know."

"I _do_ know," she whispered, "because I feel the same way."

Zuko, trying not to cry in front of Mai, turned away to hide the tears that were welling up in his eyes. Suddenly he remembered the stiletto and added, "Since you said yes, I have an engagement present for you." He held out the gold knife to Mai, who smiled and caressed it before feeling the weight and counterbalance of the knife. It was perfection in her small hand.

"Thank you, Zuko. It's beautiful. I will treasure it always," she said as she slipped it into her sheath with a quiet flourish. "My cup has runneth over today."

"Mine as well," Zuko declared tenderly as he pulled her in for an embrace. There the couple stood hugging each other, neither one wanting to be the first to let go, both excited for their future together and all the possibilities life would bring as they grew old together.

* * *

© 2017 imaginator1


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